Cosimo Solidoro, Italian Institute of Oceaongraphy and Applied Geophysics, talks about inequalities
Channel: IYBSSD
Date: 2023-07-20

My name is Cosimo Solidoro. I'm the Director of the section of Oceanography of OGS, which is the Italian National Institute for Oceanography and Applied Geophysics. 

Why are inequalities important for sustainable development?

Inequality is an important component of the sustainability debate. Inequalities create significant barriers to the environmental, social, and ecological progress. And it's quite obvious if you think about it, because inequality brings poverty, it brings social exclusion from the decision process, it brings environmental degradation and it brings poor management of common goods.

How is oceanography concerned with inequalities?

The ocean may be perceived as the last common. And while there is a larger attention to blue economy, the use of marine resources, biotic or abiotic, to fuel future prosperity, it's important to pay attention to sustainability. And social justice is one of the major component of that. And that's why our institute, OGS, try to apply for this important project, these labs of quantitative sustainability on the use of marine resources.

Could you give some examples?

Our own research shows several examples of how officially, aquaculture exploitation of marine resources, control of pollution, or any kind of management of the environment requires stakeholder engagement, community management, empowering people, building a global common pool of knowledge. And that's all has to do with inequalities and the possibility to bring different expertise and capabilities and contribution to the table.