Peace Boat visited New York from October 16-17, 2024 as part of its 118th Global Voyage. During the visit, the half-day event, “Climate Camp: Peace Boat” was organized onboard in partnership with Tectonic, a media platform, creative agency, and strategic advisory organization working to accelerate climate action. The program convened a diverse community of innovators, investors, United Nations delegates, civil society partners, artists, and advocates to explore the intersection of climate and other issues and how creative collaboration can solve these shared challenges.
The event began with a high-level dialogue featuring Diane Steinbrenner, Senior Political Affairs officer for the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs and Ruben Escalante Hasbun of Global Citizen on “The Current State of Peace in the World.” Hosted by Peace Boat US Director Emilie McGlone, they discussed how youth voices can impact world issues, including youth engagement in disarmament education. Ruben reflected on his formative years as an International Coordinator for Peace Boat as well as his current work with the global platform that mobilizes millions of people and convenes across sectors – business, entertainment, policy, government, philanthropy – to drive tangible policy change and financial investments to defeat poverty, demand equity and defend the planet as global citizens. Mentioning that Global Citizen was started by three twenty-three year old Australians, Ruben focused on how making a change in the world can start at any age, and emphasized the need for more support for youth-led initiatives, as well as for uplifting youth voices within all spaces.
The next panel was facilitated by Aaron Kinnari, CEO of Tectonic who introduced four speakers on the topic of, “Waves of Opportunity: Rallying Action to Protect and Restore the Ocean.” The first speaker was Zaria Forman, an artist inspired by the Antarctic and specializing in large-scale chalk and pastel landscape drawings. Her recent work was alongside NASA for Operation Ice Bridge, where she looked at the change in glaciers in the Arctic as a source of imagery. The second speaker was Ambassador Carlos Fuller of Belize who spoke on the impact of the climate crisis on Belize, discussing how slow onset events such as sea-level-rise and sand erosion are devastating the Caribbean region. He closed his talk with a call for more funding for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), as they are currently only funded for about 2% worth of the damage caused by climate change. The third speaker in this panel was Gaelin Rosenwaks, a photographer, filmmaker, and marine scientist who began her career in Antarctica 20 years ago. Having created a film about coral in Palau and action to protect and restore the ocean, she has spent the last six years tracking sperm whales through the ocean, and left the audience with a message of coming together to combat climate change.
The panel’s final speaker was Jean-Stephane Naas from the United Nations Global Compact Ocean Stewardship Coalition. He emphasized the importance of the private sector and how both companies and government officials need to be held accountable, stressing that legislation and public policy should incentivize and reflect positive climate action as we work towards a sustainable blue economy.
The next panel was moderated by Sarabeth Brockley, a member of the organization Women and Climate titled, “The Next Generation of Leadership: How Youth Leaders are Shaping a Shared Future.” Discussing youth involvement in the climate space and youth participation in the upcoming COP29, the panel consisted of guest speakers Jeremy Ragun, Senior Program Officer at the IUCN from Seychelles, and Karina Rana, Co-founder and Executive Director of BOSI – Big Ocean States Initiative.
Peace Boat Founder and Director Yoshioka Tatsuya gave a presentation titled, “Charting the Future: The Vision Onboard Peace Boat,” introducing the Peace Boat Ecoship project – a transformational program to construct the planet’s most environmentally sustainable cruise ship. The Ecoship will be the platform for Peace Boat’s round-the-world educational voyages carrying 8,000 people per year; host exhibitions on green technology in up to 100 ports per year and serve as a floating sustainability laboratory contributing to research on the ocean, climate and green marine technology. The ship will create awareness and encourage active engagement with the challenges embodied in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The Ecopship presentation was followed by a panel on, “Material Innovation: Accelerating Adoption of Alternatives,” featuring Chris Dowd, Investor Collaborative Fund; Satish Rayo, Chief Product Officer of New Lab; Matt Saunders, Managing Partner, New Earth Ventures; Uyen Tran, Founder and CEO of TomTex; and Marci Zaroff, Founder and CEO of Ecofashion Corp. This dynamic group of speakers discussed holding major conglomerates to a higher order, with policy being the biggest catalyst for incentivizing reducing material waste. The final panel was an eye-opening discussion on, “Investing in People and the Planet: Unlocking Blended Capital for Sustainable Development.” The panelists consisted of Amrita Bhandari, Chief Strategy Officer at Acumen Fund; Laura Fox, Co-founder and Managing Director of Street Ventures; Jay Lipman, Co-founder of Ethic and Nature2; and Richard Zimmerman, Partner WE Family Offices and Executive Director of Foundation House. The speakers focused on patient capital, using high-risk models to end poverty and the role the public sector plays in stimulating investment from the private sector.
Director of Peace Boat US, Emilie McGlone closed the event by highlighting the Peace Boat US Youth for the SDGs program and extending an offer to support the scholarship fund for more youth capacity building. The night concluded with a cocktail hour and dynamic networking gathering on the outdoor deck of the ship with music by producers Michael Tello from PillowTalk and Lauren Ritter.
