The world’s most far-reaching agreement to protect and sustain ocean health was announced in early December 2020 by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) set up by 14 countries: Australia, Canada, Chile, Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Portugal, and the island nations of Fiji, Jamaica, and Palau.
The Ocean Panel is a unique initiative by the 14 world leaders who are building momentum for a sustainable ocean economy in which effective protection, sustainable production and equitable prosperity go hand in hand.
By enhancing humanity’s relationship with the ocean, bridging ocean health and wealth, working with diverse stakeholders and harnessing the latest knowledge, the Ocean Panel aims to facilitate a better, more resilient future for people and the planet.
Established in September 2018, the Ocean Panel has been working with government, business, financial institutions, the science community and civil society to catalyze and scale bold, pragmatic solutions across policy, governance, technology and finance to ultimately develop an action agenda for transitioning to a sustainable ocean economy. The Ocean Panel is the only ocean policy body made up of serving world leaders with the authority needed to trigger, amplify and accelerate action worldwide for ocean priorities.
The Ocean Panel’s approach is both ambitious and practical. It recognizes that collaborative partnerships are essential and began its work by seeking input from a diverse array of stakeholders to develop a widely accepted understanding of what a sustainable ocean economy should look like, including an Expert Group and Advisory Network. The Ocean Panel Secretariat, based at World Resources Institute (WRI), assists with analytical work and science, communications and stakeholder engagement.
Major countries such as France, Russia, China, and the United States were not invited to join the Panel. Since negotiation with such countries is usually difficult, the flounders decided to get a group where high politics wouldn’t get in the way and they could be focused on the task. The idea was to gather a coalition of the willing—a like-minded group of countries with the ocean deeply embedded in their culture and history—to conduct discussions that would be underpinned by science. Consequently, the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy includes nations large and small, rich and poor, spread across all ocean basins. All are economically dependent, to varying degrees, on the seas.
Combined, they represent 40% of the world’s coastlines, 30% of the offshore exclusive economic zones, 20% of the world’s fisheries, and 20% of the world’s shipping fleet. The 14 countries are now inviting other nations to join the effort.
The effort was backed up by a team of 253 scientists that conducted new ocean research and published 16 authoritative papers on topics ranging from an assessment of stemming the flow of plastic waste to combating climate change.
The members of the Panel also were willing to turn conventional thinking on its ear. Instead of considering the ocean as merely a victim of climate change—which it undoubtedly is, as it is both warming and acidifying—the leaders say the seas should be harnessed to become part of the global solution. The key to that is to take an all-in approach—sustainably manage 100% of the ocean, not just the protected areas. Properly managed, the panel says, the ocean economy, including fishing, can expand. Additionally, actions such as restoration of mangroves, kelp beds, and seagrasses that absorb carbon could help offset global emissions by as much as a fifth, and help hold global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius.
The Agreement
Overall, the 14 leaders agreed to sustainably manage 100% of the oceans under their national jurisdictions by 2025—an area of ocean roughly the size of Africa. Additionally, they vowed to set aside 30% of the seas as marine protected areas by 2030, in keeping with the UN campaign known as “30 by 30.”
Both of those large commitments will help end overfishing and illegal fishing, rebuild declining fish stocks, halt the flow of plastic waste into the seas, and clean up “dead zones” created by runoff from farm waste.
The solutions offered by the Panel could generate 40 times more renewable energy, through development of offshore wind energy production and wave and tidal power, and lift millions of people out of poverty. The Panel’s economists forecast that every $1 invested in a sustainable ocean would return $5 in economic, social, and environmental benefits.
The solutions involve a range of 74 actions, some already in progress. New technology, for example, enables Ghana to track foreign fishing vessels lurking off its coast and crack down on illegal fishing. While the Panel’s call for investment in sewage and waste management infrastructure to curb the flow of plastic waste into the seas is prohibitively expensive and unlikely to happen on a large scale in the coming decades, many developing nations have banned various single-use plastic products and others are deploying catchment systems on major rivers in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia to capture plastic waste before it is disgorged into the seas.
Plan backed by science
The effort was backed up by a team of 253 scientists that conducted new ocean research and published 16 authoritative papers on topics ranging from an assessment of stemming the flow of plastic waste to combating climate change.
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