Highlighting the growing consensus on oceans being critical to climate negotiations, a new policy brief from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) launched at an United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) official side event at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday, put forth the need for definite goals and indicators, along with institutional and enforcement mechanisms to steer ocean-climate action.
The policy brief ‘Oceans-Climate Interface: Implications for Global Commons based Climate Action’ was launched at a session on ‘Climate Action through Innovation, Implementation and Inclusive Multi-level Governance’, organized by TERI and TERI School of Advanced Studies in collaboration with New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization – Japan, and Indigenous Information Network – Kenya at COP27.
The knowledge document was produced as part of the COP27 Compass component of the Act4Earth initiative launched at the World Sustainable Development Summit in 2022. During the launch at Sharm el-Sheikh, Dr. Shailly Kedia, Senior Fellow, TERI, gave a presentation on the Act4Earth policy briefs on COP27 negotiations, internationalizing lifestyles for environment, inclusive energy transitions and ocean-climate interface.
Oceans, which are the largest known carbon sink in the world, were largely omitted from the climate change negotiations until COP21 held in 2015. The policy brief focuses on the global commons of marine areas beyond national jurisdiction and climate action, and examines the interface between climate and ocean governance.
“The oceans have long been neglected in the climate change negotiations, even though the UNFCCC clearly identified its role as the globe’s most important carbon sink. The existing patchwork of agreements on the High Seas, including the UN Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), scarcely touch upon the role of the High Seas in relation to climate change,” pointed out Dr.Prodipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI.
The policy brief highlights the gaps in the climate-ocean interface and examines it through the lens of the global commons. Global commons are resource domains that do not fall under the jurisdiction of any single country, and their governance remains contentious since there is no single state or region having complete responsibility over it.