World’s Oceans Threatened by Climate Change and Overexploitation
Accounting for 70% of our biosphere, the oceans are incredibly important as ecosystems and climate regulators. Unfortunately, they are also being threatened by human activity.
Aside from their ecological significance, the oceans also hold massive economic potential, the fishing industry supporting the livelihoods of 600 billion people around the world. The ocean economy has seen a huge growth of 250% over the past 3 decades, and could provide over $10 billion worth of market opportunities in the future.
Sadly, our oceans are faced with several threats, including climate change, water pollution (especially trash) and overfishing. These problems are further exacerbated by poor management and under-funded ocean conservation efforts. Only $4 billion is invested annually towards protecting the oceans as opposed to the $22 billion that goes towards achieving the opposite each year. In order to meet Sustainable Development Goal #14 (Life Below Water), an annual budget of around $175 billion is required, making this the most under-funded of all the SDGs. There is also a significant lack of firm regulations to prevent practices that are hurting our oceans.
Furthermore, the warming of our oceans due to climate change is causing sea level rise and the occurrence of more frequent and severe weather hazards. These are in turn jeopardising both the marine ecosystem as well as human infrastructure, namely shipping routes and coastal communities.
The stakes are higher than ever leading up to this year’s UN Ocean Conference, which will take place in Nice, France from 9-13 June. The UN Trade and Development agency (UNCTAD) has emphasised the need to take smarter, organised action to protect this vital natural resource, which includes integrating the ocean-based sectors of a nation’s economy into its climate and biodiversity plans, finalising treaties banning plastic pollution, launching a new Ocean Trade Database and even utilising AI to assist in driving evidence-based ocean climate action.
But perhaps the most worrying of all is what is happening to our frozen water supply…
Glacier Loss Reaches Record Speeds
According to a recent scientific study, the world’s glaciers are melting at speeds faster than any ever recorded under the influence of climate change.
Glaciers serve as giant frozen reservoirs of freshwater for millions around the world. They are incredibly sensitive to temperature; an increase of even a tenth of a degree can have huge repercussions. This makes glaciers excellent climate change indicators, maintaining a roughly consistent size under stable climate conditions. However, they have been shrinking across the globe for the past 2 decades. Since 1900, our oceans have already risen over 20cm, with the rate expected to increase in the coming decades. In the past 25 years alone, glaciers have lost over 5% of their ice - that’s over 6,500 billion tonnes.
Unfortunately, as Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service and lead author of the study, phrased it, “what happens on the glacier doesn't stay there”. If all of the ice in our glaciers were to melt, global sea levels would rise around 32cm, which would be devastating not just for coastal communities, but the entire world. For every centimetre the sea rises, 2 million more people are left vulnerable to annual flooding.
Last month, our global sea-ice coverage reached record-low levels. At this rate, we could lose anywhere between a quarter to a half of all our glaciers, the former if we meet our climate goals, the latter, which is looking increasingly likely, if we don’t. At the end of the day, the amount of ice we will have lost by the end of the century comes down to how much warmer the planet becomes, which very much depends on us and how much we do to stop global warming.
$200 billion To Be Invested Annually Towards Protecting Biodiversity
On a more positive note, last Friday marked the creation of a strategy to, by 2030, raise an additional $200 billion towards protecting the world’s wildlife each year. With over a million plant and animal species currently being threatened with extinction and an increase in harmful practices such as deforestation, mining and improper waste disposal, it is hoped that the decisions made at the Conference will help alleviate and restore affected ecosystems.
The UN Biodiversity Conference took place in Rome, in which delegates were able to come to an agreement after a previously unsuccessful attempt during COP16 in November. Decisions were made regarding various issues, ranging from biodiversity finance to planning, monitoring, reporting and reviewing. A set of indicators was also agreed upon in order to measure both national and global progress in the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Finalised just over 2 years ago, this historic agreement aims to tackle biodiversity loss, halt and reverse the loss of nature and protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. UN Secretary-General’s Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric welcomed the announcement.
“We need to mobilise at least $200 billion dollars a year by 2030 to close the global biodiversity finance gap,” he said.
Another achievement of the Conference was the official launch of the Cali Fund, marking the start of a new era for biodiversity funding. It outlines that companies who are profiting from using data from genetic resources in nature must share a portion of their revenue with the Fund, which will then be used to implement the UN Biodiversity Convention (which also includes the Global Biodiversity Framework). Additionally, at least 50% of the Fund’s resources will be dedicated to helping Indigenous Peoples and other communities protect their local biodiversity.
Overall, the achievements at the UN Biodiversity Conference prove that global cooperation is possible and in fact the key to bringing about the change needed to mitigate the effects of global warming and climate change.
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