planet. The HLPSOE is working with governments, experts and stakeholders from around the world to develop a road map for rapidly transitioning to a sustainable ocean economy. The members of the HLPSOE (Australia, (Canada), Chile, Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Palau and Portugal) represent approximately 30 percent of the world’s coastlines, 30 percent of the world’s exclusive economic zones, 20 percent of the world’s ocean catch, and 20 percent of the world’s shipping fleet. Climate change poses stark risks to the health of the ocean and to the realisation of a prosperous and sustainable ocean economy. Acidification and rising ocean temperatures are negatively impacting important industries such as fisheries, aquaculture and tourism, as well as the well-being of coastal populations. There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and limit further temperature rise, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Global action to address the state of the ocean has never been more urgent. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (released on September 25th, 2019), highlights major threats to the ocean from climate change, such as declining and migrating fish stocks, rising sea levels and increasing ocean acidification. A healthy ocean is critical for our future health and prosperity, and for achieving the global targets to limit climate change and reduce global GHG emissions. Now, in its innovative scientific analysis, the expert group is “flipping” the approach: could the ocean, in fact, be a solution to climate change? It provides five opportunities for action, highlighting solutions that would help curb climate change and contribute to the development of a sustainable ocean economy, while protecting coastal communities from increasingly severe storms, safeguarding and creating jobs, improving food security, reducing air pollution, restoring habitats for wildlife and helping maintain economic growth, thereby contributing to many of the SDGs.
Dr Thierry Chopin Climate change: The ocean will be impacted, but it is also part of the solution
O
cean-based climate action can play a much bigger role in shrinking the world’s carbon footprint than was previously thought. It could deliver up to a fifth (21%, or 11.82 GtCO2e/year) of the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cuts needed by 2050 to keep global temperature rises below 1.5°C. Reductions of this magnitude are larger than annual emissions from all current coal fired power plants worldwide. This is a key finding of a new scientific report, The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change: Five Opportunities for Action, timely published on September 23rd, 2019, for the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit in New York. I am very pleased to be one of the nineteen researchers and policy analysts from around the world, who prepared this report for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLPSOE) – a unique group of 14 serving heads of state and government (Canada was fully involved in the development of this Call to Action; however, as it is holding a general election, the Government of Canada is not currently in a position to sign the document). Established in September 2018, the HLPSOE is committed to catalysing bold, pragmatic solutions for ocean health and wealth that support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 for the year 2030, and build a better future for people and the
Call to ocean-based climate action – the five opportunities for action and mitigation
In response to the report, the HLPSOE issued an urgent Call to Ocean-Based Climate Action to inspire political commitments, business partnerships and investments to set us on the new pathway to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. There are five opportunities for action identified in the report to build a sustainable ocean economy, confront the threat of climate change and help meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the SDGs.
Figure 1: Ocean-based mitigation options explored in the report, The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change: Five Opportunities for Action, and associated annual mitigation potential in 2050
Offshore Wind 0.65–3.50 GtC02e International Shipping 0.75–1.50 GtC02e
Dietary Shifts 0.30–1.06 GtC02e Mangroves 0.18–0.29 GtC02e
Domestic Shipping 0.15–0.30 GtC02e
Aquaculture 0.02–0.04 GtC02e
Salt Marshes 0.05–0.10 GtC02e Seaweed Farming 0.05–0.29 GtC02e
Wild Seaweed Beds ? – ? GtC02e
Ocean Energy 0.11–1.90 GtC02e
Wild Capture Fisheries 0.08–0.14 GtC02e
Marine Fauna ? – ? GtC02e
Seagrasses 0.22–0.70 GtC02e
Seabed Carbon Storage 0.50–2.00 GtC02e
1. Invest in nature-based climate solutions
Restoring, protecting and managing coastal and marine “blue carbon” ecosystems – including mangroves, seagrasses, salt marshes, macroalgae and reefs – to enhance their ability to sequester and store carbon, adapt to the effects of climate change, and improve coastal resilience, would secure considerable CO2 sequestration and storage benefits (up to 1.09 GtCO2e/year by 2050), while delivering coastal protection, rehabilitating key habitats and ecosystems, recovering biodiversity, and providing food security and jobs. To do so, effective science and ecosystem-based management tools, including establishment of well managed and climate smart marine protected areas and other area-based management tools, must be applied and innovative financial
12 | October 2019 - International Aquafeed