Sciences Po takes part in the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3)

The Undergraduate College has strengthened its Seas and Oceans Certification

In February 2025, 15 students from Le Havre and Poitiers, graduates of the Undergraduate College, were awarded the “Seas and Oceans Certification” by Jeanne Lazarus, Dean of the Undergraduate College, and Charlotte Halpern, Director of the Institute for Environmental Transformations. The ceremony takes place in the year leading up to the third United Nations Conference on the Oceans, to be held in Nice in June, at which 10 Sciences Po students will be taking part as interns. Most of these students are candidates for the 'Seas and Oceans' certification.

This year, the foundations of the Certification have been strengthened thanks to the setting up of a Scientific Committee, the adoption of a Charter by the same Scientific Committee and the certification of the first class. Certification was also opened to the Menton campus. On 13 February 2025, an inaugural conference entitled "The Ocean under threat: exploring international mechanisms for sustainable management" brought together students interested in Certification from the three campuses and Julien Rochette, director of IDDRI's Ocean programme and a lecturer at Sciences Po. The conference introduced the main threats to the oceans in the context of climate change.

Sciences Po students committed to the seas and oceans at UNOC3

10 students (four from the Menton campus, four from the Le Havre campus and two from the Poitiers campus) interested in the Undergraduate College's Seas and Oceans Certification were selected following a call for expressions of interest for an internship at UNOC3, as part of a close collaboration with Sciences Po's Institute for Environmental Transformations. Accredited, they will take an active part in the international conference throughout the week of 9 June 2025, in Nice.

As the Seas and Oceans Certification provides the humanities and social sciences courses needed to understand the major challenges of the environmental transformations affecting the oceans, Sciences Po will also be offering a 'virtual side event', labelled as such by UNOC3, in the form of a video, to be broadcast on various media during the conference and beyond, in order, according to the UNOC3 organisers, to 'contribute to the success and impact of the conference'.

This "Sciences Po students for the ocean" video is announced on the official programme of UNOC3 virtual side events.

Highlighting Sciences Po's commitment, via its students and researchers, to the seas and oceans, the video includes interviews between researchers and students, and shows the crucial role of the humanities and social sciences in UNOC3 issues, calling for action. 

Five other students, four from the Menton campus and one from the Dijon campus, will be taking part in another side event on Tuesday 10 June, dedicated to issues specific to the Mediterranean, at the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen in Nice. The day is coordinated by the Interministerial Delegation for the Mediterranean, with a multi-stakeholder panel, and students will be specifically involved in 3 sessions:

• Closing session (18:45-19:30): Three students will be selected to take part in an exchange with the Mediterranean environment ministers at the end of the ministerial meeting of the States Parties to the Barcelona Convention.
• Media coverage of the day
• Structured dialogue with the European Commission (organised by the South region): a question will be put by one of the students to Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, on the theme of 'ecological and energy transition'.

Scientific mobilisation around the UNOC

How are we adapting to the impact of climate change on the oceans?

On 11 April 2025, a workshop on this theme, entitled "Out of the Blue", was organised by Emelyn Rude, a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po (Bruno Latour Fund), specializing in the environment and the American food system. At a time when 2025 has been declared the 'Year of the Sea' in France and Nice is hosting the Third United Nations Conference on the Oceans in June, the workshop highlights the fact that although 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water and 50-80% of life on Earth is found underwater, the oceans, seas and marine ecosystems are under-studied and the issues involved are little known. The aim of this workshop was therefore to encourage the development of 'blue research' and interdisciplinary collaboration on this subject at Sciences Po.

On 05 June, Sciences Po's Institute for Environmental Transformations is organising an event open to the public at the Climate Academy entitled "Que reste-il encore à sauver ? Protéger les derniers espaces sauvages" with a screening and debate on the documentary film Takayna: the heart of lutruwita / Tasmania.

Sciences Po is also taking part in the “One Ocean Science Congress”, open to the general public and co-organised by CNRS and IFREMER from 4 to 6 June in Nice:

• A poster is planned for FUTURE-OBS (Ifremer, Sciences Po, médialab): "Developing a new generation of marine observatories using digital technology for more accurate, sustainable and equitable management of coastal socio-ecosystems" by Eric Thiébaut et al (Session T3-6 - Observation and monitoring of marine biodiversity).
• Camille Mazé, Sciences Po, Cevipof, CNRS, holder of the Chaire Outre-Mer & Changements Globaux, will be present for the POLYCONE project (Belmont Forum), with her partners from Polynesia and Hawaii for the talks, town hall and posters.

During UNOC week, which runs from 09 to 13 June, Cassandre Rey-Thibault, a post-doctoral student at the CEE's Fonds Latour, will be presenting a poster entitled "Is risk-management enough to adapt to future coastal compounding risks? A comparison of coastal port urban areas to understand how adaptation may be mainstream".