The challenge of tackling the climate emergency is helped, to an extent, by natural carbon sinks forests, soil, and the oceans. These sinks absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, partially offsetting the huge surplus of emissions that humans add to it.
While land and forests are central to discussions on emission reduction, and are a designated sector’ under most assessments of national emissions, the oceans do not get the same treatment.
This is due to a combination of factors. Only a limited part of the oceans is legally part of any given nation’s territory, making them difficult to account for. Unlike other sinks, ocean uptake of carbon dioxide has a huge negative effect ocean acidification which threatens species, especially sensitive ones like coral. Oceans need a different type of climate solution.
A new international initiative at the 25th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP25) currently underway in Madrid aims to kickstart the search for such solutions. The Platform of Science-based Ocean Solutions aims to enhance the sharing of knowledge created by various actors in the ocean and climate community to advance ocean-climate action.
The platform builds on the momentum of an IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) earlier this year. The SROCC highlighted that the global ocean has warmed unabated since 1970 and has taken up more than 90 per cent of the excess heat in the climate system. It has also absorbed 20-30 per cent of total human-caused carbon dioxide emissions since the 1980s, causing increasing surface acidification.
The scheduled release of the report this year prompted the host country, Chile, to declare that COP25 would be a Blue COP’. Despite the site of the conference being shifted to Madrid, Chile retains the Chair, and yesterday’s announcement partially redeemed that promise.
Down To Earth 2019