UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean

Peter Thomson of Fiji has been appointed by UN Secretary-General as Special Envoy for the Ocean to follow up on the outcomes of the United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Mr. Thomson leads the UN’s advocacy and public outreach efforts inside and outside of the UN system and works with relevant stakeholders to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. Mr. Thomson brings a distinguished experience in diplomatic services, including as Permanent Representative of Fiji to the UN and President of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly during which he provided visionary leadership in guiding the preparation of The Ocean Conference in 2017.

Senior Research Fellow at Ocean Policy Research Institute, Sasakawa Peace Foundation

Mr. Masanori Kobayashi undertakes research work on ocean and sustainability policy including marine and coastal resource management, blue economy, ocean governance and fishery policies. He worked on sustainability issues in the Pan Asia Fund and Pacific Island Nations Fund of SPF, the Ocean Policy Research Foundation, the Yokohama National University Graduate School for Environment and Information Science, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, the United Nations (Geneva, Bonn and New York), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan (Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York). He will speak on the topic of renewable marine energy as an example for climate change mitigation based on marine resources.

Director, Urbanisland ab

Trevor Graham is the director of Urbanisland, a company focused on innovation for sustainable communities and economic development that can build social and natural capital. In Urbanisland he is
building on this experience from around the world to find new collaborative processes to drive sustainable change. His early career was in the UK working with community regeneration. Trevor spent fifteen years in various senior roles leading sustainability work for the City of Malmö in Sweden driving urban regeneration, innovation, sustainable lifestyles and work for new business models. More recently he has worked as Director of Environment on the island of St Helena with a broad responsibility ranging from spatial planning and property management to agriculture and environment. On St Helena he focused on economic development through a shift to renewable energy, sustainable fisheries and sustainable waste management. His work has been acknowledged with numerous awards such as the World Habitat Award and the Greening the Islands Award.He will speak about the local experience from Malmo, Sweden, in addressing ocean action, climate and SDG planning in an integrated manner.

Research Analyst at Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Maja Johannessen joined the Foundation in July 2015 to support the development of the Institutions, Governments & Cities programme. She is currently taking over the role as policy research manager after the project Circular Economy in Cities launched March 4. She supports the Foundation’s engagement with governments and international policy institutions, for example as a member of the Coordination Group of the European Commission’s European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform initiative. Maja Johannessen will speak on the topic of circular economy which puts the synergies between ocean, climate change and SDGs in a broader context by decoupling economic activities from the consumption of finite resources.

Deputy Permanent Representative/ Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Samoa to the United Nations

Ms. Betham-Malielegaoi is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Samoa to the United Nations. Samoa hosted the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States in 2014, which adopted the Samoa Pathway, the accelerated modalities of action, in which countries recognized the need to support and invest in SIDS, so that they can achieve sustainable development. In September 2019, the General Assembly will review progress in implementation on Samoa Pathway and related commitments. She will speak on specific challenges and opportunities that arise from coherent ocean and climate action from a SIDS perspective.