2022 WE'VE BEEN BUSY! G20, UN OCEAN CONFERENCE & COP 27

OPP at Minister Vivian Balakrishnan's address to the United Nations in Lisbon

2022 was when the world made a commitment to exit from the pandemic and get to work! Ocean Purpose Project has been very humbled to be supported by the governments of Indonesia, Portugal and our home country Singapore and numerous agencies, fellow startups and researchers who believe in the mission of partnerships for good and accelerating solutions for the environment quickly.

G20 Side Event: Ocean Purpose Project Seminar on Green Economy and Sustainable Business under B20 Indonesia.

On the 22nd June 2022, Ocean Purpose Project Founder and CEO Mathilda D’silva gave her first G20 address about the possibilities of Plastic to Hydrogen as a secondary source of sustainable energy while tackling unwanted ocean plastics. We humbly thank the Government of Indonesia, AIS Forum and Norad - Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation for this event under B20 Indonesia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs of The Republic of Indonesia, conducts the “G20 Side Event: Seminar on Green Economy and Sustainable Business”.

Mathilda shared how Ocean Purpose Project’s innovations could integrate into the existing regulatory strategy of H. E. President Joko Widodo’s 10 New Balis initiative. The “10 New Balis” project is 10 destinations in Indonesia that are assigned to be “the next Bali”. These destinations are projected to attract many visitors, just like Bali, which successfully attracts 4 million visitors. The “10 New Balis” includes Borobudur Temple (Central Java), Belitung (Sumatra), Mount Bromo (East Java), Labuan Bajo (East Nusa Tenggara), Lake Toba (North Sumatra), Thousand Islands (Jakarta), Mandalika (West Nusa Tenggara), Wakatobi (Southeast Sulawesi), Tanjung Lesung (Banten), and Morotai (North Maluku). However a massive amount of solutions are required to fulfil eco-tourism, eco-tainment, renewable energy, waste management, ocean plastic mitigation as well as the enablement of the green hydrogen economy.

Feel free to watch the presentation and how OPP’s ideas could work for the region of Mandalika in Lombok Indonesia here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q8aBx9XLEQ

UN OCEAN CONFERENCE- Lisbon 2022: Ocean Purpose Project as NGO delegate & exploration of Portuguese Blue Economy, Ocean NGOs and seaweed heritage and innovations.

June was a busy month for our CEO and founder Mathilda D'silva who journeyed to Lisbon, Portugal for the UN Ocean Conference. There she questioned the impasse between plastic pollution and mechanical recycling. She spoke about how plastic to hydrogen and seaweed bioplastics were the path of the future to solve the ocean pollution crisis and shared the perspectives from the beaches in Pasir Ris, Singapore.

Mathilda also met with innovative youth leaders from Sustainable Ocean Alliance from Africa, Portugal, Philippines, Canada and sat by the solar powered tent of ocean activists outside the UN event arena with Mr Sandro Ribeira who felt that activism and crypto needed to merge to be heard.

Touching base with seaweed luminaries such as Vincent Doumeizel the Senior Advisor on Oceans to the UN Global Compact from Safe Seaweed Coalition and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Club, AUD as well as researchers, social entrepreneurs, government leaders and amazing oceanauts like Sylvia Earle and Asha de Vos and Prince Aga Khan from Aga Khan Foundation who have a personal tour of his photographs, one of a turtle named Matilda. Although there was a lot of talk on policy, the need to “take action” but no consensus on “what action”, the conversations over Ocean Beer where were things were exciting and riveting.

Katapult Ocean and their CEO Jonas Skattum Svegaarden threw an amazing party with an after party event held by the youth activists of Portugal in an abandoned dockside building covered in grafitti “minutes” of the UN events which kept everyone informed, grounded and with a clear message of how music and ocean activism came together to discuss the immense dangers of deep sea bed mining.

Mathilda with Prince Aga Khan

The Lady of the Deep- Sylvia Earle with Mathilda Dsilva

COP27: Ocean Purpose Project speaks and showcases at the inaugural Singapore Pavillion as champions of Plastic to Hydrogen.

The time for talk is done.

The time for fancy awareness campaigns and ranting on social media is over.

Real action starts NOW.

Asia produces 81% of global ocean plastic pollution. Plastic is the most common type of marine debris in Singapore, making up a whopping 57% killing marine life and polluting coastlines. Most of the plastic in our oceans comes from land-based sources: by weight, 70% to 80% is plastic that is transported from land to the sea via rivers or coastlines. The other 20% to 30% comes from marine sources such as fishing nets, lines, ropes, and abandoned vessels. Singapore especially is addicted to its Get, Use, Throw culture with plastic.

A solution is needed for our oceans- one that can solve the world’s ocean plastic problems, energy chaos and the need for social impact. A solution that utilises mobilises 192 coastal countries that produce and are polluted by millions of metric tonnes of plastic garbage. A solution that solves the need to secure a multi fuel future for shipping- be it low sulphur fuel oils to hydrogen.

Ocean Purpose Project is humbled to be invited to showcase our proposal of plastic to hydrogen and how our beach clean ups in Pasir Ris are currently the only beach clean up in the world that converts ocean plastics collected into hydrogen. With the slogan- “WE MUST ACT NOW”, Ocean Purpose Project will be a Keynote Speaker at COP27, Egypt on Energy Day and showcase the potential of our HQ in little Pasir Ris town to become a prototype beach town for Plastic to Hydrogen as well as solving chemical pollution with seaweeds to be turned into single use, 100% biodegradable bioplastics.

Join us at 1pm for Mathilda D’silva’s presentation about Ocean Purpose Project and at 1.30pm in Singapore Pavillion, Blue Zone at COP27 Sharm El Sheikh as we present the panel discussion:

“Moving beyond the Beach Clean Up- Driving the recovery of clean energy such as hydrogen from ocean plastic waste through social entrepreneurship, deep tech and ESG partnerships”

Learn how a small female led NGO without massive grants and commercial backing galvanised a town of fishermen, waste collectors, students, elderly and special needs persons to break stereotypes and overcome the obstacles to take real action combining waste, energy, aquaculture, behaviour change that leads to implementation.

The Ocean Purpose Project story is one of struggle and resilience- we thank the Singapore Government for their continued support of our work especially COP SG Pavilion National Climate Change Secretariat, Singapore Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry (Singapore) National Environment Agency National Parks Board IPI Enterprise Singapore Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) PSA Singapore People's Association and our MP for Pasir Ris Punggol Desmond Tan

Learn more here: www.cop-pavilion.gov.sg

If you would like to invite us to speak at your conference, please contact our partnerships team at partnerships@oceanpurposeproject.com.