Spotlight: Youth Policy Advisory Council 2022 Projects

At the beginning of 2023, the second cohort of SOA’s Youth Policy Advisory Council (YPAC) concluded. Featuring 21 young ocean policy experts from 20 countries, YPAC 2022 led two strong campaigns that emphasized the power and momentum behind youth voices calling for ocean action. 

Who is YPAC? Check them out here, and learn about the 2022 cohort's campaigns and projects below.

Campaign Against Deep-Sea Mining 

YPAC 2022 was keen on ensuring that governments and the private sector are aware that deep-sea mining is an issue that is critical to youth’s interest—youth who are both constituents and consumers. To achieve this goal, YPAC 2022 applied for and received an SOA grant for deep-sea mining advocacy.

The 2022 YPAC cohort planned an exhaustive outreach strategy that included:

1. The creation and dissemination of a survey for youth perspectives on deep-sea mining

2. A policy brief based on these survey findings

3. An online discussion to promote survey results and an interdisciplinary conversation on the opposition to deep-sea mining.

The key takeaways from the survey include: 

• • There is general opposition by global youth towards deep-sea mining, with 85% of youth respondents declaring that they oppose deep-sea mining taking place in international waters. 

  • Of the respondents who oppose deep-sea mining, most (55.7%) oppose it due to concern for the ocean (i.e., environmental costs and the belief that the costs outweigh the benefits ) 

  • 92.32% of youth respondents (n=1,050) support a moratorium on deep-sea mining. 

  • 79.2% of all respondents believe that the potential adverse impacts outweigh the potential economic and energy benefits of deep-sea mining. 

  • Despite the strong opposition, 70% of respondents do not know whether their country supports the moratorium on deep-sea mining or not, indicating a knowledge gap and lack of communication. 

  • 55.6% of respondents believe that there are solutions or alternatives (e.g. improved metals recycling) to deep-sea mining, while 40.2% do not know.  

Special deep-sea mining graphics designed by Maria Joao Mirales.

YPAC hopes their data-driven testimony from real youth perspectives can pressure and inform the Member States at the International Seabed Authority to align themselves with stakeholder groups—including youth, non-governmental organizations, and multinational companies—to follow the precautionary principle, and to establish a moratorium on deep-sea mining.

Please share these infographics created by YPAC in your networks to elevate youth voices that stand in solidarity against deep-sea mining. Access the toolkit here.

Want to learn more about the data and results from our survey and the risks, impacts, and alternatives to seabed mining? Check out YPAC 2022’s policy brief here (also available in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Russian, German, and Arabic). 

Global Blue New Deal

The Global Blue New Deal is a youth-led, stakeholder-driven ocean and climate policy framework that includes calls to action for governments, the private sector, and civil society.

During World Oceans Week 2021, YPAC officially shared its first public draft of the Global Blue New Deal (GBND) to the world. To ensure it remains current, visionary, and inclusive, YPAC 2022 has reviewed and revised the framework to reflect youth perspectives within the ocean and climate sector in light of global ocean policy discourse, such as meetings for the Global Plastics Treaty, the adoption of the High Seas Treaty, and other developments in ocean and climate policy.

YPAC 2022’s Global Blue New Deal 2.0 is a landmark reference for youth-led policy solutions. The Global Blue New Deal 2.0’s policy and vision reinforces the need for youth and other marginalized groups to be recognized as equitable stakeholders in ocean governance. 

Read the report on the differences between GBND 2021 and 2022 here. 

Thank you, YPAC 2022!

SOA is reenvisioning our youth policy engagement program and will keep you updated in the future.

Interested in youth policy at SOA? Fill out this interest form here.