Looking for horizon views and a fresh breeze after lengthy days of technical negotiations? Wanting to enjoy some time by the sea or just sail away? Then today is your lucky day because you are invited to board the ship that will bring you into poorly explored waters: the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue. Taking place today and tomorrow from 2 to 5 pm, the ocean community will take a deep dive into 1) marine biodiversity conservation and coastal resilience and 2) technology needs for the ocean.
If you are not an experienced sailor in these waters, don’t worry – ECO is here to provide you with a basic navigation map.
To navigate topic 1 “Marine biodiversity conservation and coastal resilience”:
- Expand discussions beyond coastal areas: High Seas and their biodiversity are critical, too!
- Link to other international agreements, such as the CBD’s Global Biodiversity Framework, the High Seas Treaty, and the London Convention / London Protocol and uphold their decisions.
- Discuss integrating marine and coastal ecosystems in NDCs and aligning with NAPs and national biodiversity plans (NBSAPs).
- Address ocean acidification and identify the knowledge, capacity, and process gaps that are impeding progress under the UNFCCC.
- Identify gaps and challenges in blue carbon accounting with a call to IPCC to expand the Wetlands Supplement (to include, among others, macroalgae forests, reefs and the seabed).
- Recognise threats to ocean ecosystems and the seabed that jeopardise the goals of the Paris Agreement (such as marine plastic pollution and deep-sea mining).
To dive into the depth of the topic 2 “Technology needs for the ocean – climate action, including finance links”:
- Protect marine ecosystems and the rights of the Indigenous Peoples and local communities that depend on them.
- Identify marine spatial planning needs, for example for the growing offshore renewable energies sector and other ocean energy technologies.
- Uphold the precautionary approach regarding unproven high-risk approaches such as marine carbon dioxide capture and removal (mCDR) and storage under Article 6, and deep sea mining.
- Implement strong precautionary regulatory controls under the London Convention/London Protocol and uphold, enforce and strengthen the longstanding moratorium under the CBD on all forms of geoengineering which would harm the natural mitigation and adaptation capacity of the ocean.
We hope this navigation map from ECO will help you not to lose the wind in your sails at today’s and tomorrow’s Dialogue sessions, but instead to ensure robust and sustainable outcomes of this meeting.
But ECO also stresses the need to think about our future journey after this Bonn conference ends, as there will be a need to continue work on the ocean-climate nexus and to build up on the Dialogue’s outcomes. Such a big journey needs a proper guideline, and the roadmap to 2030 and guiding questions for the future are essential.