The seventh Our Ocean Conference concluded in Palau with 410 commitments worth $16.35 billion. Focusing on six Areas of Action, the conference convened partners from across the globe to identify solutions to manage marine resources, increase the ocean’s resilience to climate change and safeguard its health for generations to come.

Albeit strongly affected by human activities, the ocean and its ecosystems are suffering the adverse effects of climate change and intense human activities. While bilateral and multilateral development finance have been flowing into ocean-related activities over the last years, only a bold global commitment can help achieve Agenda 2030.

Since 2014, Our Ocean Conference has been implemented to commit to concrete and significant actions to protect the ocean. In 2022, the seventh conference was hosted by the Republic of Palau and the United States with the final aim to demonstrate how blue financing can sustain ocean conservation and development.

It highlighted the importance of ocean-based climate solutions in keeping the 1.5-degree target within reach and improving global climate resilience. The event also featured 22 side events on issues from marine protected areas and blue foods to clean shipping and ocean-climate finance.

Since the first Our Ocean Conference, stakeholders garnered more than 1,400 commitments worth approximately $91.4 billion and protecting more than five million square miles of the ocean. This year, the conference made it possible to strengthen the commitments of countries and key stakeholders, resulting in the following commitments:

• Climate: 89 commitments worth $4.9 billion
• Sustainable fisheries:60 commitments worth $668 million
• Sustainable blue economies: 89 commitments worth $5.7 billion
• Marine protected areas:58 commitments worth $1.3 billion
• Maritime security: 42 commitments worth $358 million
• Marine pollution: 71 commitments worth $3.3 billion

More details: https://ourocean2022.pw/

To many, COP 26 has been a failure to mobile the resources needed to preserve our ocean.

If the ocean was mentioned in the preamble of the Glasgow Pact, noting “the importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including forests, the ocean and the cryosphere…”, United Nations’ Members States did not take coercive decisions to preserve our blue resource.

We have all seen it! A new iconic movie of Tuvalu’s foreign minister Simon Kofe delivering a speech thigh-deep in seawater highlighted the impacts of climate change on the ocean. If the ocean was mentioned in the preamble of the Glasgow Pact, noting “the importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including forests, the ocean and the cryosphere…”, United Nations’ Members States did not take coercive decisions to preserve our blue resource.

To many, COP 26 has been a failure to mobile the resources needed to preserve our ocean. Pacific delegates condemned a ‘monumental failure’ that leaves islands in peril, and ocean advocates asserted that the international treaties required to protect marine environments were not adopted.

Although the Paris Agreement sets a target of limiting average global warming to well below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels (and aims to keep it at 1.5℃), it does not set a target for limiting ocean pH change. Reinforcing action at the national level to integrate ocean and climate action in policies is more than needed, and only a few ocean-focused announcements have been made:

• Seychelles pledged to include the blue economy and ocean adaptation in its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC);
•  19 countries signed up to a shipping decarbonisation pledge aligned with the Paris Agreement;
• Marine ecosystems were recognised as “carbon sinks” in Article 38 of the final decision of Glasgow Pact;
• Public and private interests teamed up when the UK and Canada and businesses like Google, Deutsche Bank and AXA promised major investments in ocean protection and a blue economy.

In ocean conservation, successful efforts are the results of collaborative actions. In 2021, the ocean is still suffering from climate change which will lead to alterations in climate patterns around the world. Without international recognition of the ocean’s role, we won’t be able to deliver a healthier planet to future generations.

Know more about OBP certifications : https://www.obpcert.org

In August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) launched its Sixth Assessment Report, highlighting the consequences of climate change on the ocean, the coastlines and coastal communities. What are the key findings of this report?

In an effort to help increase international ambition towards the protection of the environment, the IPCC launched a new report featuring the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system. The report projects that climate changes will increase in all regions, affecting the ocean and marine resources. Large-scale changes in oceanic systems (temperature and acidification) will cause damages to livelihoods, cultural identity and health for coastal communities at 1.5°C.

Key findings of the report mentioned that:

• Abrupt climate change events could contribute an additional 1 metre of sea rise
  level.
• Marine heatwaves will continue to increase in frequency, duration and intensity.
• The chemistry of the ocean is changing: oxygen levels have dropped which can
  formd ead zones where marine life cannot be sustained.
• Ocean warming dominates the energy inventory change.

As a matter of fact, human activities directly impact climate changes, such as the production and mismanagement of plastic waste. According to the IPCC, the production and incineration of plastic will pump more than 850 million tonnes of greenhouse gases. The infiltration of microplastics into the ocean also disrupts its capacity to act as a natural carbon sink.

Acting to protect our coasts and coastal communities from the effect of climate change is more than needed. At Zero Plastic Oceans, we are committed to restore our rivers and shorelines through the collection of ocean bound plastic, as well as the recycling of plastic waste. These measures will help to ban plastic pollution and, in the long term, the production of virgin plastic.

Know more about OBP certifications : https://www.obpcert.org