Recently, the Eighth Plenary Conference of Marine Technology Subcommittee (ISO/TC8/SC13, hereinafter referred to as SC13) of International Organization for Standardization was held in the form of video conference. More than 30 experts from 9 countries including China, Australia, Japan, Iran, Germany, South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Denmark as well as International Meteorological Organization (WMO) and other international organizations attended the conference. Academician Li Jiabiao, Chairman of the Marine Technology Subcommittee hosted the conference.

      In the conference, Researcher Feng Xuwen reported on the work progress of the subcommittee since the seventh plenary conference held in September last year on behalf of SC13 Secretariat, and highlighted the progress of implementation of 2021 standards. Also, under the circumstance that offline conference was not allowed by ISO, he suggested that working groups and projects should strengthen exchanges through emails, video conferences, etc., so as to promote international cooperation in the field of marine technology standard under the COVID-19 epidemic.

      Established in 2014, SC13 is mainly responsible for offering international standards for observation, development and environmental protection of ocean and its related ocean areas. It is an important subcommittee of International Organization for Standardization in the field of marine technology. Until now, SC13 has officially published 9 standards for submersibles, marine observation instruments, seawater desalination, marine environmental surveys and marine environmental impact assessments, of which, 6 was published in 2021. For example, the recently published ISO 23040:2021 "Marine Environmental Impact Assessment-Specification for Seabed Sediment Survey-Interstitial Biological Survey” has promoted the transformation of China’s marine survey experience into international standards.

      In the conference, trends and standard development conditions of WG1 submersible working group, WG2 marine observation working group, WG3 seawater desalination working group and WG4 marine environmental impact assessment working group were discussed in detail. The topics of discussion session of new proposal focused on two areas, i.e., blue carbon and marine-related industry classification. "Blue carbon” refers to a process, activity and mechanism that employ marine activities and organisms to absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and fix and store it in the ocean. In 2009, the United Nations released relevant reports, confirming the important role of ocean in global climate change and carbon cycle process. The promotion of international standards in the blue carbon field will not only contribute to environmental protection, but also guide the green economy, which will be one of SC13’s work priorities in next few years. A total of 4 resolutions were formed at this conference, which decided to speed up the process of proposals such as technical specifications for marine biological surveys in the international seabed area.