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🌍 How can open data help turn the global 30x30 ambition into action? With #COP17 in full swing, the spotlight is on delivering the global goal to protect 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. 🌊 Marine protection remains particularly challenging...

This week at COP17, we’re joining our friends & partners from Med Sea Alliance, @clientearth.bsky.social, Together for the Ocean, and @earthechointl.bsky.social to explore how open data supports legal advocacy, campaigns & youth-led action — and where greater collaboration and investment are needed.

🌍 How can open data help turn the global 30x30 ambition into action? With #COP17 in full swing, the spotlight is on delivering the global goal to protect 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. 🌊 Marine protection remains particularly challenging...

🌍 COP17 is officially underway this week — a key moment to advance action on the global 30x30 target of protecting 30% of our land and ocean by 2030. With four years to go, progress on marine goals lags furthest behind in both coverage and effectiveness.

We'll discuss: 🔹 How open data is powering legal advocacy, national and global campaigns, and youth-led action 🔹 What stands in the way and which data and tool gaps most need collaboration and investment. Attending #COP17? Join us! Full details below 👇

🌍 COP17 is officially underway this week — a key moment to advance action on the global 30x30 target of protecting 30% of our land and ocean by 2030. With four years to go, progress on marine goals lags furthest behind in both coverage and effectiveness.

🌐 "The broader implication of SkyTruth's findings sits at the intersection of international conservation policy and basic environmental physics. Oil does not obey international law. A slick that forms outside an MPA boundary will follow ocean currents regardless of the legal designation on the map."

Artificial intelligence has become a topic of discussion as its influence grows across our daily lives. Conversations around its capabilities and impacts are now widespread across society and are also happening among conservation organizations.

AI use isn’t new to us. SkyTruth has used machine learning for years, notably with our free open-source ocean oil pollution detection platform, Cerulean. What’s changed is the scale at which we can now apply it.

Artificial intelligence has become a topic of discussion as its influence grows across our daily lives. Conversations around its capabilities and impacts are now widespread across society and are also happening among conservation organizations.

🗣️ "It’s one thing to designate an area a marine protected area. It’s another thing entirely to ensure that that area is well enough monitored and managed to ensure that pollution and other impacts are not negatively affecting the marine protected area.”

🗿 How do you monitor one of the world’s largest marine protected areas when it’s 2,000 miles off the coast? The Chilean government put that question forward when establishing a marine protected area around Easter Island in 2012. @pew.org reached out to SkyTruth with the challenge.

"We strengthen each other not only in capacity but in thought power," notes Amos. "At the highest levels, our leadership is in communication and identifying what the next big problems are that we think we can tackle together in the ocean."

🗿 How do you monitor one of the world’s largest marine protected areas when it’s 2,000 miles off the coast? The Chilean government put that question forward when establishing a marine protected area around Easter Island in 2012. @pew.org reached out to SkyTruth with the challenge.

The prototype also attracted the attention of actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who provided $6 million in funding after seeing a live demo. His backing supported further development & @globalfishingwatch.org launched at the 2016 Our Ocean Conference, with DiCaprio & Sec. of State John Kerry announcing it.

🗿 How do you monitor one of the world’s largest marine protected areas when it’s 2,000 miles off the coast? The Chilean government put that question forward when establishing a marine protected area around Easter Island in 2012. @pew.org reached out to SkyTruth with the challenge.

🤔 This revelation sparked a pivotal question: Could machine learning technology automatically recognize fishing patterns on a global scale? The concept gained momentum when the global visualization potential impressed Google's Geo for Good team.

🗿 How do you monitor one of the world’s largest marine protected areas when it’s 2,000 miles off the coast? The Chilean government put that question forward when establishing a marine protected area around Easter Island in 2012. @pew.org reached out to SkyTruth with the challenge.

We designed a year-long satellite monitoring project in response, using radar imagery to detect vessels in the waters around the island. A breakthrough came when working with data from an automated tracking system used on ships called the automatic identification system, or AIS.

🌊 Our next #webinar is happening this Wednesday! Join us as we share findings from our latest report on global ocean pollution & hear highlights from our #ClimateWeekNYC event, where we discussed how geospatial data can accelerate progress on the planet's most pressing environmental challenges.

#30x30 is the promise. Are we on track to deliver it? Two new reports provide the clearest picture yet of global progress – and where action must accelerate. Together, they show us where progress is being made, where implementation is falling short, and what needs to happen next. More 👇

🌍 The 30x30 Global Assessment provides a comprehensive analysis of progress towards protecting 30% of land and ocean by 2030. 🌊 The Ocean Protection Gap Report 2026 takes a deeper look at the ocean – where protection is lagging and exploring what is needed to accelerate effective delivery.

🛰️ We've kicked off our event at #ClimateWeekNYC & started the day by talking about exposing ocean pollution at scale with our friends at @globalfishingwatch.org, @ai2.bsky.social, and Plastic Odyssey!

"We've now estimated its true scale using satellite data — the problem is measurable, and potential sources can increasingly be identified. Our analysis also reveals where the biggest gaps in accountability and protection remain, and that is where attention and enforcement need to be directed."

🛰️ We've kicked off our event at #ClimateWeekNYC & started the day by talking about exposing ocean pollution at scale with our friends at @globalfishingwatch.org, @ai2.bsky.social, and Plastic Odyssey!

🌆 Our team is #ClimateWeekNYC-bound! Attending? Send us a message to connect. 🗓️ We're looking forward to seeing our friends and partners at our event on Wednesday morning: Turning Geospatial Data into Action on Pollution and Climate. It currently has a long waitlist, but... 🧵👇

🌴 Rich in coral reefs, seagrass meadows & mangrove forests, Bintan Island is a national priority for building coastal resilience in #Indonesia. Its beaches & waters also support tourism and local fishing communities. Yet in 2024, thick black sludge washed ashore, impacting water quality & tourism.

🌊 Using Cerulean, our marine oil detection tool, Financial Times reporters investigated chronic oil pollution hotspots in Southeast Asian waters. No firm source could be determined for the pollution events on Bintan, but with Cerulean, the body of evidence needed to take action continues to grow.

🌆 Ready for #ClimateWeekNYC? We’ll be hosting a collaborative working session to convene top leaders & practitioners in the environmental sector, with a laser focus on one question: ❓ How can geospatial data accelerate our collective progress on the planet's most pressing environmental challenges?