During the United Nations General Assembly in New York (21-25 September 2026), Belgium reinforced its commitment to sustainable global ocean observing. The country joined the OceanEye International Alliance and announced several concrete pledges to further strengthen the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). VLIZ also plays an important role in these efforts, leading or supporting several Belgian commitments related to ocean observing, marine data, biodiversity monitoring and international capacity development.
Ocean observation is essential for safety and security of operations at sea, a competitive blue economy, weather forecast, climate projections, ocean restoration and protection, and coastal resilience. The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) programme, co-sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organsiation (WMO), is the central hub of this effort. GOOS brings together 64 countries, 17 global observation networks, and 8,000 platforms delivering 120,000 observations per day, providing essential data to support sustainable ocean management.
Global ocean observing under pressure
Despite the importance of its work, GOOS remains vulnerable to financial and geopolitical disruptions. It depends heavily on a small number of major contributors and lacks sufficient capacity to ensure long-term stability without more sustainable funding. It is therefore seeking contributions from Member States in the form of commitments to help achieve the objectives of the OceanEye International Alliance. This alliance is co-led by the European Union and Canada, in cooperation with the IOC-UNESCO.
Within that framework, the European OceanEye initiative (3 June 2026) is the new EU strategy to position Europe as a world leader in ocean observation and ‘Ocean Intelligence’ by 2035. It aims to contribute 35% of the global ocean observing system and secure 35% of the market for ocean observation technologies. And to focus on new sensor technology, data infrastructure, AI and the European Digital Twin of the Ocean. The EU therefore no longer regards ocean observation as a research activity, but as strategic infrastructure for climate policy, marine protection, innovation and societal resilience.
Belgium steps up its commitment to ocean observing
Belgium, despite its short coastline, has a long-standing tradition of open marine science, ocean observation and open data. In that spirit, it is joining the OceanEye International Alliance, turning its ambition into action. It is planning, over the next three years, to increase its commitments by approximately 10 million euros through investments in ocean observation, biodiversity monitoring, marine data systems and research infrastructures. Belgium is also reiterating its support for a neutral and effective clearing-house mechanism under the High Seas treaty, the BBNJ-agreement (Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction). As part of that engagement at multilateral level, it steps forward as a candidate for hosting the secretariat of the BBNJ agreement, convinced that it serves to protection of the ocean and the well-being of all our societies.
The pledging event, a side event to the UN General Assembly High Level week, was celebrated on 23 September by several heads of state and high-level delegations. It reaffirmed their commitment to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) programme and to raise attention regarding its importance. Belgium is joining the OceanEye International Alliance and is therefore turning its ambition into action.
Six concrete commitments from VLIZ
Several organisations in our country have made commitments to this end, including the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). Specifically, VLIZ is committed to: (1) contribute to Euro-Argo, the European contribution to the global Argo programme, a network of autonomous buoys that continuously monitor the state of the ocean; (2) continue to host and support key European ocean observation coordination efforts and marine data infrastructures (European Marine Observation and Data Network - EMODnet), strengthening Europe’s ocean knowledge and observation capacities and enforcing the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (EDITO), Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the EU OceanEye initiative; (3) continue to host Flemish support for the IOC-UNESCO Project Office for International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) in Ostend, a global hub for IODE and for IOC capacity development activities, and housing the secretariat of the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS); (4) further strengthen environmental DNA monitoring; (5) strengthen the capability of African countries to monitor sea level, in conjunction with the IOC-UNESCO Sea Level station Monitoring Facility, through funding of the SEAMARCS project by Flanders; (6) strengthen the global marine biodiversity knowledge and capacity building in developing marine biodiversity inventories and taxonomic information systems (such as the World Register of Marine Species – WoRMS).
> Read more about the pledges of the countries within the OceanEye International Alliance
