On 22 September 2026, the Solutions Dialogue on Ocean Action and Leadership was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York as part of the Climate Summit 2026 convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Organized by the Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson, and the Climate Action Team, the dialogue was moderated by Dr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna, Director of Ocean and Climate Policy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Member of the COP31 Advisory Board. It marked the first time the ocean was the subject of a dedicated solutions dialogue at the Secretary-General’s climate summits.

The information note examines the institutional framework and agenda of the dialogue, as well as the key points raised in the panels on coherence in ocean governance, delivering across the ocean-climate-biodiversity nexus, and finance, technology and private-sector solutions. The note further assesses the work of Türkiye’s COP31 Presidency, which was positively received during the dialogue, together with concurrent developments such as the Ocean and Seas Summit held in Trabzon, the launch of the COP31 Action Agenda and the adoption of the UN Declaration on Sea Level Rise.

You can access the detailed information note on the subject here.