Map of the Week – Education – Cities and greater cities
The One Ocean Summit took place on 9-11 February in Brest (Brittany, France) in the context of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the support of the United Nations. The goal of the One Ocean Summit was to raise the collective level of ambition of the international community on marine issues and to translate our shared responsibility to the ocean into tangible commitments.
During the workshop titled “Which Europe of the Seas?” on 10 February, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius focused on three aspects [1]:
- Europe that protects the ocean – referring to the ongoing negotiations on Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction and the importance to safeguard the fragile ecosystems of the poles;
- Europe that uses the marine resources sustainably – referring to the European Union’s commitment to sustainable fisheries; and
- A sustainable blue economy and ocean knowledge.
He also mentioned Mission Ocean whose core objective is to scale up solutions to restore the health of marine and aquatic ecosystems and the European Digital Twin Ocean.
Earlier in the afternoon, the workshop “Educate to the sea, Ocean for youth” gathered many speakers from across the world who shared their experience in Ocean Literacy. Their contributions showed the wide diversity of activities carried out (e.g.; involvement of volunteers in ocean conservation, development of educational material, art exhibitions, workshops, teachers training, involvement of divers and fishermen in educational activities) as well as the importance of partnerships and the need to scale up Ocean Literacy. In her speech, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel presented the initiatives undertaken in Europe, including for example the EU4Ocean Coalition which brings together stakeholders, young people and schools and the European Climate Solidarity Corps.[2] The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) highlighted the Ocean Literacy Portal aimed at sharing the World’s Ocean knowledge and the ‘New blue curriculum: a toolkit for policy-makers’ to support the inclusion of ocean education in the school curricula. [3]
Did you know that there is a map on education in the European Atlas of the Seas? Explore the Map of the Week to learn about the number of students in higher education in European cities. Click on the cities to see how the number of students has evolved over the past years.
The data in this map are provided by Eurostat.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_22_950
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_22_945
[3] https://ioc.unesco.org/news/one-ocean-summit-unesco-calls-countries-include-ocean-education-school-curricula-2025