The global ocean is our planet’s life support system providing our food, our weather and the air we breathe. But overfishing, pollution and climate change are severely damaging the ocean and its capacity to sustain life in the future. China is now among the world’s biggest ocean powers: it has the biggest fishing fleet, maintains the world’s biggest aquaculture industry, harvests and consumes more of the world’s seafood than any other nation, emits the largest volume of greenhouse gases and produces one third of the world’s ocean plastic pollution. China’s coastal waters and ecosystems are severely impacted by its decades of rapid, unbalanced and unsustainable development. China recognises that it has to change course and is ready to work with the EU in tackling the management of the ocean. The EU and China attended the Malta conference on oceans last October; and in January the EU announced its Plastic Strategy. How can the EU and China deepen their cooperation? How to tackle the plastics issue? How could the opening of the Polar Silk Road affect the Arctic?

Programme

1700 Welcome, Fraser Cameron, Director of the EU-Asia Centre

1705 Panel

Isabel Hilton, Director of China Dialogue

Andras Inotai, Cabinet, Commissioner Vella

Shang Zhen, First Secretary, Mission of China to the EU 

Ann Dom, Deputy Director, Seas at Risk

1800 Q and A

1830 Close

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