Highlights of GEM in the Ocean Decade Progress Report in China (2021-2025)

At the 3rd United Nations Ocean Summit in Nice, France, from June 9th to 13th, the UN Decade Collaborative Center on Ocean Climate Nexus and Coordination (DCC-OCC) unveiled the Progress Report of Ocean Decade in China (2021-2025). The report emphasized the Chinese government has always participated in United Nations affairs with a high sense of responsibility and mission, and is an active advocate and an important contributor to the Ocean Decade initiative.

As one of the seven programmes endorsed by the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) in China, the Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme has made remarkable advancements over the past five years. The report accentuated the scientific research achievements of the GEM programme, notably highlighting the successful establishment of a global estuarine monitoring network across 49 coastal countries and regions. Within the past two years, the GEM programme has collected over 2370 samples from more than 180 estuaries, a feat exhibited in its commitment to comprehensive data gathering.

Presently, the GEM programme has concluded the analysis of pharmaceutical contamination levels within select estuarine samples and is on track to unveil global research findings on estuarine pharmaceutical contamination by year-end.

Furthermore, GEM has conducted an array of research activities, including a thorough review of global estuarine pharmaceutical research spanning the last two decades, as well as the establishment of global estuarine pharmaceutical monitoring methodologies. The GEM programme has also conducted numerous capacity-building workshops in various locations such as Barcelona, Bangkok, Xiamen, and Hong Kong.

Looking ahead to the next phase of research spanning the upcoming 5 years, GEM will commence pioneering endeavors utilizing innovative passive sampling techniques to monitor a broader spectrum of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in estuaries worldwide. Additionally, it will intensify monitoring of pollutant occurrences in estuarine sediments. The GEM programme intends to host regular online seminars to foster global discussions on estuarine research among scholars.

Over the next 5 years, the GEM research team is poised to collaborate extensively with global partners to achieve the shared goal of cleaner and safer estuaries on a global scale.