The Science and Technology Ministers of the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US) and the EU met in Tsukuba City, Japan on May 15-17 to discuss science, technology and innovation aspects across global challenges such as health, energy, agriculture and the environment. In their communiqué, the G7 ministers support the enhancement of multidisciplinary sustained global ocean observing system, promote open data sharing infrastructure and call for an enhanced system of ocean assessments.

The G7 ministers support taking the following actions: 

• Support the development of an initiative for enhanced global sea and ocean observation required to monitor inter alia climate change and marine biodiversity, e.g. through the Global Argo Network and other observation platforms, while fully sustaining and coordinating with ongoing observation;
• Support an enhanced system of ocean assessment through the UN Regular Process to develop a consensus view on the state of the oceans, working to a regular timescale which would enable sustainable management strategies to be developed and implemented across the G7 group and beyond;
• Promote open science and the improvement of the global data sharing infrastructure to ensure the discoverability, accessibility, and interoperability of a wide range of ocean and marine data;
• Strengthen collaborative approaches to encourage the development of regional observing capabilities and knowledge networks in a coordinated and coherent way, including supporting the capacity building of developing countries; and
• Promote increased G7 political‐cooperation by identifying additional actions needed to enhance future routine ocean observations.

The full Tsukuba Communiqué is available here.

In the attachment to the Tsukuba Communiqué, the G7 provides a series of recommendations based on the G7 expert workshop on future of the oceans and seas. These recommendations are build on the Global Ocean Observing System approach with specific mention of individual observing networks like profiling floats, ships, moorings or gliders, the need to develop new observing technologies to support the implementation of the Essential Ocean Variables, and the need for more effective use of marine information gathered through observations.

The full text of Attachment 2 to Tsukuba Communiqué is available here.