United Nations Ocean Conference Opens
The week-long United Nations Ocean Conference begins at U.N. headquarters in New York City on June 5.
More than 4,000 government leaders, diplomats, scientists and advocates are gathering to work out how to implement seven targets to restore the health of the ocean by, among other things, protecting 10 percent of the ocean in marine reserves, ending overfishing and reducing climate change impacts on coral reefs and other ecosystems.
In September 2015, the U.N.’s 193 member states agreed to the targets, known as Sustainable Development Goal 14. Now comes the hard part: transforming how the world manages a global ecosystem crucial to the economy, food supply and human health. The targets expire in 2030 and the clock is ticking.
Thus the Ocean Conference. “I think it’s significant because for the first time in its history the U.N. will literally spend a week focused on the ocean,” said Karen Sack, managing director of Ocean Unite, a nonprofit that focuses on raising the profile of ocean issues. “The ocean has often been called an orphan environmental issue as it doesn’t have an annual meeting where progress is measured.”
The Ocean Conference will convene seven “partnership dialogues” to hash out how to achieve the individual targets and issue a “call for action” that reaffirms the member states’ commitment to implementing the goals. More than 600 governments, nonprofits, international groups and business have also registered “voluntary commitments” of specific actions they will take toward fulfilling the targets.
Trump: Don’t Link Climate Change to Ocean Issues
As the United States moves to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, the Trump administration also has been objecting to a U.N. Ocean Conference document that links climate change to dying coral reefs and other marine threats, according to Reuters.
The offending language is in a “call for action” issued by U.N. member states that reaffirms a commitment to achieve seven targets to revive health of the ocean by ending overfishing, creating protected marine reserves and reducing the impact of global warming.
“I think I can safely say that the United States has not been very keen on strong language on climate change,” Isabella Lovin, Sweden’s deputy prime minister and the cochair of the Ocean Conference, told Reuters.
The Trump administration likely did not appreciate the reference to the Paris agreement in the final draft of the call for action.
“We are particularly alarmed by the adverse impacts of climate change on the ocean, including the rise in ocean temperatures, ocean and coastal acidification, deoxygenation, sea-level rise, the decrease in polar ice coverage, coastal erosion and extreme weather events,” the document states. “We acknowledge the need to address the adverse impacts that impair the crucial ability of the ocean to act as climate regulator, source of marine biodiversity and as key provider of food and nutrition, tourism and ecosystem services, and as an engine for sustainable economic development and growth. We recognize, in this regard, the particular importance of the Paris Agreement adopted under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.”
Don’t expect the U.N. to acquiesce to the Trump administration.
“We are not prepared to leave that [strong language] out,” Lovin said. “That’s really fundamental. The impacts of climate change are almost immeasurable.”
High Rate of Ocean Acidification Off U.S. West Coast
Researchers at Oregon State University have recorded some the world’s highest rates of ocean acidification off the coasts of California and Oregon.
Seattle public station KUOW reports that the scientists placed sensors in tide pools and near-shore waters and took readings for three years between 2011 and 2013. At 63 percent of the sites, acidification was at levels associated with the failure of commercial nurseries, according to the study. As the ocean absorbs high levels of carbon dioxide, the water acidifies and affects the ability of oysters and other marine life to grow shells.
“What we didn’t know is that if you’re an animal living on the shore, how often do you see a bad day?” Francis Chan, a professor in the department of integrative biology at Oregon State University, told KUOW. “And now because we have sensors that are actually taking a measurement of ocean pH every 10 minutes throughout the summer, we can start to build that picture.”