Credit: Shifaaz Shamoon / Unsplash

UN Climate Change News, 22 June 2022 – “I invite all to do their utmost to strengthen ocean-climate action and its finance and that these commitments are included in national climate action plans and communicated to the UNFCCC directly.” This was the ask from Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa on the opening of the first mandated ocean and climate change dialogue under the UNFCCC.

On the front line of climate change, the ocean, coastlines and coastal communities are being disproportionately impacted by increasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. To tackle this, governments at COP26 in Glasgow set in place an annual dialogue to strengthen ocean and climate change action.

The first Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue took place during the June Bonn Climate Change Conference which wrapped up last week. The dialogue highlighted the vital importance of the ocean to livelihoods and biodiversity and as a fundamental component of the climate system, while highlighting the need for greater ocean-related climate action.

Covering 71% of the surface of our blue planet, the ocean has for decades been undergoing dramatic and unprecedented changes due to human caused climate change, resulting in ocean warming, acidification, loss of oxygen, damage to ecosystems and sea level rise.  All of this has affected the lives and livelihoods of millions around the world, especially the poorest and the most vulnerable.

Speaking at the opening of the Dialogue, Patricia Espinosa emphasized the role of the ocean in addressing climate change: “Despite all the damage humankind has done to it, the ocean still offers enormous potential, not just for its own recovery, but for climate mitigation and adaptation.”

The Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue is intended to act as a yearly stepping stone to greater ambition and action for ocean-climate action at national and international level - an imperative according to the UN.

During the 2022 dialogue, panelists, participants online and in person discussed a range of ocean-based solutions from renewable energy, to fisheries, to protecting biodiversity and how to enable these solutions. Video interludes presented some of the critical linkages and considerations for ocean-based climate action, including the sequestration capacity of blue carbon ecosystems and the knowledge of coastal indigenous communities. 

Ms. Espinosa: “The health of the ocean and humankind are so deeply intertwined that we ignore the connection at our peril." Part of the solutions needed for mitigation lie in ocean-based action, including scaling up offshore renewable energy; reduction of emissions from shipping and ports; and development of the sustainable blue economy.

Peter Thompson, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for the ocean, explained how well designed, nature-based solutions are cost-effective solutions that can be included in climate action policy and financing, from the mitigation benefits of seagrass to the coastal protection value of coral reefs and mangroves.

He also underlined the carbon sequestration and storage capacity of oceans and their role in helping coastal populations adapt to a changing climate: “The protection, restoration and conservation of these vital ecosystems represents an indispensable ocean-based climate solution for our achievement of emission reduction plans, as well as in building resilience in line with the Paris Agreement.”

The Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue took place ahead of the  UN Ocean Conference taking place from 27 June to 1 July in Lisbon, Portugal, which will seek to propel much needed science-based innovative solutions aimed at starting a new chapter of global ocean action.

More information on the ocean action workstream under UN Climate Change can be found here. Further information on the latest research updates on the ocean and cryosphere discussed at the fourteenth meeting of the Research Dialogue during the Bonn Climate Conference can be found here.