Paul Holthus, WOC CEO, To Participate in Panel Led by Prime Minister Solberg at Arctic Frontiers Conference

21 January 2019 -- Norway’s Prime Minister Solberg will chair the session on “Ocean Health. Blue Growth Through Green Thinking” at the Arctic Frontiers Conference, Tromsø, Norway, 20-24 January.

WOC will bring ocean business and investment community input to the Prime Minister’s panel at Arctic Frontiers, based on the WOC’s unique role as the global Blue Economy Business Organization.

Paul Holthus said, “Prime Minister Solberg is a global leader in catalysing and leading international efforts to address ocean sustainable development, and it is an honour to be part of the Prime Minister’s panel at Arctic Frontiers.”

Commenting on the broader context of collaboration on ocean sustainable development, Holthus noted that, “The WOC has uniquely been working for a decade to bring together the global business and investment community to develop leadership, collaboration and action on ocean sustainable development. We look forward to helping ensure private sector involvement in recent ocean sustainable development efforts emanating from Norway, such as the Prime Minister’s High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, given their commitment to work with others to complement, harmonize and amplify existing initiatives.”

In the Arctic, the WOC has long been active in working to develop multi-industry efforts on sustainable development. This began in earnest in 2012 with the WOC convening the ground breaking Arctic Business Leadership Council workshop and working with the Arctic Council chair to organize the first-ever Business Dialogue with the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group.

Current WOC Arctic efforts are focused on engaging commercial vessels to collect oceanic and atmospheric data by hosting or deploying instruments and/or to share previously collected data. WOC is undertaking this action as part of the EU-funded Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium (ARICE) and the WOC SMART Ocean-SMART Industries program. Companies operating vessels in the Arctic (and elsewhere) are encouraged to contact the WOC to participate in data collection and sharing as a concrete way to implement Sustainable Development Goal 14.

CEO Holthus has also been invited to speak at Arctic Frontiers sessions on “Future Arctic Logistics and Infrastructure” and “Battling Marine Plastics”.