SKLMP approved to establish Hong Kong's first UNESCO RTRC-Coastal COMMIT

On 5 April 2023, the State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution (SKLMP) of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) was approved to host the first UNESCO Regional Training and Research Centre on Coastal Contaminant Monitoring and Marine Innovative Technologies (the RTRC-Coastal COMMIT) for the Western Pacific region in Hong Kong at the 14^th Intergovernmental Session of the IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC-XIV, 4-7 April 2023, Jakarta, Indonesia). This is the 3^rd UNESCO Regional Training and Research Centre in China and the 6^th in the Western Pacific region.

The RTRC-Coastal COMMIT aims to meet the needs of the WESTPAC region for ensuring ecological safety, and thereby protecting essential marine habitats and conserving biodiversity and natural resources therein. We will assist countries, particularly the developing nations, in the WESTPAC region and its adjacent areas, in building their research capacity in coastal contaminant monitoring through knowledge exchange and technology transfer. We also plan to provide a series of training courses in several areas, such as monitoring contaminants of emerging concern (e.g. per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), environmental risk assessment, coral reef survey techniques, and research on toxic benthic algae.

RTRC-Coastal COMMIT will contribute greatly to the achievement of the UN Ocean Decade Societal Outcomes: a clean ocean, a healthy and resilient ocean, and a productive ocean.