14 world leaders of the ocean panel has called for sustainable ocean management by 2025
World leaders of the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economic (Ocean Panel) have proposed a new ocean action agenda to manage their national waters by 2025 sustainably. They are from Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Palau, and Portugal.
It is an initiative that will significantly impact the entire shipping industry by driving the decarbonisation plan. It helps to produce as much as six times more food from the ocean; generate 40 times more renewable energy; lift millions of people out of poverty; contribute to one-fifth of the GHG emissions reductions needed to stay within 1.5°C.
A World Resources Institute release stated that the countries would implement a holistic approach to ocean management that balances protection, production, and prosperity to nearly 30 million sq. km of national waters, which is almost Africa’s size.
The Ocean Panel is also persuading leaders of coastal and ocean states across the globe to join in the goal of managing 100% of their national waters. This is aimed at sustaining the Exclusive Economic Zones by 2030.
Furthermore, it has recommended focusing on five critical areas: ocean wealth, ocean health, ocean equity, ocean knowledge, and ocean finance. These world leaders agree that the ocean is at stake now and suffers from the harmful effects of pollution, overfishing and climate change.
“Humanity’s well-being is deeply intertwined with the health of the ocean. It sustains us, stabilizes the climate and leads to greater prosperity,” said Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway and Ocean Panel Co-chair. “For too long, we have perceived a false choice between ocean protection and production. No longer. We understand the opportunities for action and the risks of inaction, and we know the solutions. Building a sustainable ocean economy is one of the greatest opportunities of our time. The members of the Ocean Panel are united in our commitment to sustainably managing 100% of our national waters by 2025.”
Through various scalable and accelerated efforts such as multi-stakeholder coalitions focused on ocean renewable energy, ocean accounting, shipping decarbonisation, tourism and blue food are being implemented to meet this goal.
The Power of Our Ocean report has also been published by the Ocean Renewable Energy Action Coalition (OREAC) – in support of the governments around the world scaling the development of ocean-based renewable energy.
Source: