October 21–22 | Xiamen — The 4th Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions (ONCE) Open Science Conference was held in Xiamen on October 21–22. The Conference was jointly hosted by Xiamen University and the Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions International Big Science Program (ONCE Program) under the theme “Expanding International Cooperation on Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions, Advancing Global Climate Governance.”
The event was attended by Wenping Hu, President of Xiamen University and Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Nianzhi Jiao, Member of CAS and Chief Scientist of the ONCE Program; Lansun Zheng, Fahu Chen, Guirui Yu, Shucheng Xie, Nanfeng Zheng, Maoyan Zhu and Qiang Zhang, Members of CAS; Peter Thomson, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean; Louis Legendre and Jean-Pierre Gattuso, both Academicians of the European Academy of Sciences; Yanqing Li, Chair of the ISO Technical Committee on Ships and Marine Technology (ISO/TC 8); Zhifeng Wang, Level II Bureau Rank Official of the Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology; and Ying Huang, Deputy Director of the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology. The Conference brought together experts, scholars, representatives of international organizations and government officials from 17 countries — including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Chile — as well as faculty and student delegates from Xiamen University. The opening ceremony was presided over by Yancheng You, Vice President of Xiamen University.
Wenping Hu reviewed the University’s century-long history, shaped from its founding by the sea and growing alongside it. He noted that global climate governance still faces three major gaps — in knowledge, in capacity and in equity — and called on scientists worldwide to pursue transnational, interdisciplinary collaborative research. Leveraging the ONCE Program, Xiamen University will join hands with global partners to build consensus through standards, deepen co-development through openness, and advance shared benefits through practical actions, thereby contributing its share to global climate governance.
On behalf of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the National Oceanic Administration (NOA), Shuxian Sun, Vice Minister of Natural Resources and NOA Administrator, extended warm congratulations to the Conference via video message and set out three expectations for the ONCE Program: First, strengthen the scientific foundation and advance ocean carbon sink research and development. Second, pursue land–sea coordination to promote ecological protection and green development. Third, build on the UN Ocean Decade to deepen open cooperation.
Peter Thomson commended the ONCE Program for its ambition to “explore carbon removal alongside the recovery of marine ecosystems”, which he said “offers a constructive direction for international research”. He called on governments, research institutions and those who finance climate and ocean action to give ocean science the sustained support it needs, “We should pursue that ambition with both resolve and care, testing the climate benefits and ecological consequences with equal rigour” so that promising ideas may be “tested responsibly and, where the evidence supports them, put into practice”.
Nianzhi Jiao emphasized that ocean negative carbon emissions are not the concern of any single country, but a major scientific undertaking for all humanity. He outlined “five imperatives” for advancing the ONCE Program: clarify the synergistic carbon-sequestration mechanisms of the four carbon pumps; strictly uphold the MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification) system and ecological ethics; establish internationally recognized standards and a common language for carbon markets; implement transregional demonstration projects; and forge a complete chain from fundamental theory to global governance.
Zhifeng Wang and Ying Huang, on behalf of Fujian Province and Xiamen Municipality respectively, pledged full support and enabling conditions for the development of the ONCE Program, and expressed their commitment to advancing China’s marine innovation and development.
During the Conference, a number of international cooperation Memoranda of Understanding were signed; the 3rd ONCE Program Fellows, as well as the 2025–2026 Excellent Service Awards and Excellent Partnership Awards were presented; and a suite of research achievements under the ONCE Program was released, together with the Xiamen Statement on Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions for 4th UN Ocean Conference (UNOC4). Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Academician of the European Academy of Sciences and Foreign Academician of CAS, delivered a keynote lecture at the University’s Qunxian Lecture to faculty and students.
Following the opening ceremony, the Conference proceeded with a series of parallel events — the ONCE Program International Cooperation Workshop, the International Standards Working Group Meeting, the International Standards Forum and the Experts’ Meeting — and concluded with an ocean-literacy artistic gala as its closing program.