Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi enhances its commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 14, focusing on life below water, with the inauguration of its Ocean Institute. This initiative serves as a hub for research and education on marine conservation, addressing critical issues such as biodiversity, pollution, and sustainable fisheries. The Ocean Institute fosters collaboration with local and international organizations, promoting awareness and advocacy for marine protection among students and the wider community. Through workshops, research projects, and community engagement, Sorbonne Abu Dhabi plays a vital role in promoting the health and sustainability of ocean ecosystems while empowering future leaders in marine science.
Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi launched the Institute for Oceans (IFO) as a sister institute of the Institute for Oceans (l’Institut de l’Océan) at Sorbonne Université in Paris, aiming to support the University’s drive to build interdisciplinary, transnational research and create synergies that will have a “real and positive impact” in the UAE, in the region and at a global level.
Fortified by the application of state-of-the-art technology, including Artificial Intelligence, Imaging and DNA, this next chapter in the strategic plan of the university will support the fulfilment of the 2030 UAE vision, the achievement of the 2050 net-zero targets, and a commitment to the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Energy security, Water scarcity, and environmental sustainability are most pressing global challenges facing mankind in the 21st century. In fact, the availability of freshwater resources is crucial to those countries that look for sustainable economic development, particularly in aired regions.
In UAE, water desalination facilities provide about 80% of water consumed in the country. Indeed, massive efforts should be invested in research for finding new water treatment and desalination technology and to decrease the overall cost of the available technologies.
This project in collaboration with ADNOC and Khalifa University contributes directly to the efforts of achieving one of the goals of Abu Dhabi 2030 plan as it targets the issues related to water scarcity and lack of water resources and reducing energy consumption in UAE; through providing full water management guidelines toward the utilization of oil and gas Produced Water.
A key to address long-standing questions regarding underlying climate change mechanisms in the Mediterranean, such as timing and amplitude of precipitation variability, is a multiproxy record (e.g. pollen, glacial, marine sediment records), which covers multiple glacial–interglacial cycles and is sensitive to regional changes in the hydroclimate. As mountain glaciers change volume in response to climatic changes, their former extents record past changes in climate, providing data on how patterns of ice distribution have varied spatially with time. Mapping and dating of past ice margins, documented by terrestrial glaciogenic sediments and landforms, provide valuable information to gain a better understanding of landscape evolution. In order to juxtapose palaeoglaciers in different geographical settings, a useful tool is the Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA), which marks the area of a glacier where annual accumulation and ablation are equal and is governed by air temperature and precipitation.
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Sorbonne University is one of the most important universities in the world for ocean sciences, covering a wide variety of disciplines from climate science, hydrodynamics, to biology, ecology, anthropology or paleontology within 30 research laboratories. Many of its researchers are contributing to the works of IPCC. Oceans play a key role in the climate system. Absorbing 90% of the heat excess due to the Green House Effect and 25% of our carbon emissions. Oceans protect us, being a powerful regulator of the climate system. But in doing so, ocean are changing, becoming warmer, more acidic, lacking oxygen in some places, losing the ice cover in the Arctic, rising the sea level ; even the global current system may be altered. Will these changes alter the efficiency of the ocean shield? Monitoring the oceans has become more crucial than ever in order to better understand their role in the climate system and anticipate their transformation that will affect marine biodiversity, fisheries and food security and costsl areas. This is why, in 2021, the United Nations opened the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Internationally recognized researchers from Sorbonne University/CNRS presented their works in the field of ocean monitoring applied to El Niño (Eric Guilyardi), the ocean micro biome (Colombian de Vargas), the Argo observing system (Hervé Claustre). Elise Basquin, a Sorbonne University PhD student, presented her work on coastal hazards related to the rising sea level.
This critical panel delved into the profound intersection of climate justice and our vast oceans. As climate change intensifies, the repercussions are particularly poignant in the marine realm, affecting ecosystems, biodiversity, and, crucially, vulnerable populations. The panel aimed to shed light on the disparities in the impact of climate change on different communities, emphasizing the urgent need for equitable solutions to safeguard our oceans and promote climate justice. It provided a comprehensive platform for dialogue, fostering a deeper understanding of how climate justice principles can be effectively applied to marine environments as well as actionable strategies that promote justice, resilience, and sustainability for both vulnerable populations and the oceans they rely on
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