In its preamble<\/a>, the pact highlights \u201cthe importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including in forests,\u00a0the ocean\u00a0and the cryosphere, and the protection of biodiversity … when taking action to address climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n Most significantly, the pact calls for an annual dialogue to strengthen ocean-based action, that will take place every May\/June from 2022, before reporting back to the COP towards the end of the year.<\/p>\n Torsten Thiele, head of the Global Ocean Trust, who moderated the finance panel at the first UNFCCC Ocean\u2013Climate Dialogue earlier this year, told China Dialogue Ocean: \u201cCOP26 succeeded in fully integrating ocean-based action into all workstreams. Now we need to ensure that \u2026 we have a solid commitment to stopping ocean degradation, supported by appropriate financial contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n Campaigners, notably John Kerry, the US special climate envoy, had seen this annual dialogue as key to ensuring that the ocean would play a role in UN mitigation, adaptation and finance goals.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the world talks about the climate crisis, the ocean crisis must be front and centre in that conversation. One way to ensure that happens will be to establish an ongoing forum for ocean issues here in Glasgow in the COP26 decision text,\u201d Kerry said.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n In a statement<\/a> on the COP26 outcome, WWF Oceans said the annual Ocean\u2013Climate Dialogue would be an important tool to increase ambition: \u201cPriority actions should strengthen the mitigation, adaptation and resilience potential of the ocean, as well as dependent communities and economies, through nature-based solutions and measures that are biodiversity-positive and can deliver net-zero outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n While ocean health, biodiversity and climate change have traditionally been siloed under UN processes, there has been increased recognition that they are inseparable issues. The ocean plays an essential role in climate regulation: covering 70% of the planet, it absorbs CO2 and heat, and the life within it produces half the oxygen we breathe. But it is under existential threat due to anthropogenic climate change, pollution and overfishing. The latest science, particularly from the 2019 IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere<\/a> and the 2021 Second World Ocean Assessment<\/a>, indicates that tipping points are being reached and risk is increasing, namely from acidification, warming and sea-level rise.<\/p>\n However it\u2019s not only the damage, but the ecosystem services provided by the ocean that are being increasingly valued<\/a> economically and recognised politically. Protecting and restoring ocean ecosystems \u2013 from mangroves, salt marshes, coral reefs, seagrass beds to kelp forests \u2013 provides crucial services such as carbon sequestration, reducing vulnerability to storms and flooding, and supporting sustainable livelihoods for indigenous peoples and local communities.<\/p>\n Jane Madgwick, CEO of Wetlands International, said<\/a> the presence at this year\u2019s COP of the first-ever pavilion dedicated to peatlands \u201cindicates how far we\u2019ve come in finally acknowledging the fragility and power of peatlands while providing a platform on which the private and public sector can work together to realise solutions towards the protection and restoration of, hectare-to-hectare, the best carbon sink, when compared to forests.\u201d<\/p>\n The aim is to reach objectives of the Paris agreement, and if we don\u2019t use the nature-based solutions at hand \u2013 including the oceans \u2013 we will never reach it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While many high-level experts agreed that the relationship between the ocean and climate change \u2013 the \u201cocean\u2013climate-nexus\u201d \u2013 had now become mainstream, others said valuable time had been lost by excluding the ocean from the UNFCCC process for so long.<\/p>\n \u201cI fervently hope that even the naysayers now realise that there cannot be a healthy planet without a healthy ocean, and that climate change and ocean change are basically one and the same thing,\u201d said Peter Thomson, the UN\u2019s special ocean envoy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has taken 25 years \u2013 and we are still fighting,\u201d Waldemar Coutts, director for environment and oceans at Chile\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented. \u201cThat\u2019s very sad because the aim is to reach objectives of the Paris agreement, and if we don\u2019t use the nature-based solutions at hand \u2013 including the oceans \u2013 we will never reach it.\u201d<\/p>\n Representatives of small island states also noted progress at COP26, but stressed a need for further action. \u201cWe\u2019d like to see [the COP] get consistently bluer,\u201d said Palau\u2019s UN ambassador, Ilana Seid. \u201cSeeing traction in getting oceans incorporated into climate dialogue [is progress] but we need to see more. The voices of small island developing states haven\u2019t been amplified loudly enough and we must continue to push our agenda at future COPs.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n The Glasgow Climate Pact followed two weeks of talks that saw more than 30,000 people arrive in Glasgow, including civil society, the media, world leaders and government representatives. There had been high hopes<\/a> that the ocean would feature strongly on the agenda, with a dedicated themed day<\/a>, and numerous side events and exhibits showcasing ocean-based climate solutions, fisheries, shipping emissions, offshore renewable energy and finance.<\/p>\n The first week began with 20 countries signing the third instalment of the \u2018Because the Ocean\u2019 Declaration<\/a>, which called on states to integrate ocean, climate and biodiversity linkages in their plans to implement the Paris Agreement.\u00a0More than 100 signatories to the Ocean for Climate Declaration<\/a> \u2013\u00a0from civil society organisations, the private sector and academia \u2013 then called for governments to include ocean conservation initiatives within their formal commitments to reduce emissions.<\/p>\n In ocean funding, US$145 million was announced for the\u00a0Global Funds for Coral Reefs<\/a>, while $20 million was committed towards supporting nature-based solutions and vulnerable communities at the\u00a0Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance<\/a>\u00a0roundtable. Elsewhere, the\u00a0Great Blue Wall initiative<\/a>\u00a0was launched by states in the Western Indian Ocean, aiming to conserve and restore marine and coastal biodiversity, while Fiji announced its plan<\/a>\u00a0to issue a sovereign blue bond in 2022. Belize also pledged<\/a> to develop a pioneering \u201cproject finance for permanence\u201d scheme for marine protected areas (MPAs), conservation and coastal ecosystems.<\/p>\n The forests got the money and the oceans didn\u2019t<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But many ocean campaigners contrasted these initiatives against the high-profile funding pledges<\/a> made on forests. \u201cThe forest people got the money and the ocean people didn\u2019t,\u201d said the Global Ocean Trust\u2019s Thiele. \u201cWe need a serious commitment to ocean climate finance. An extra $10 billion given to the oceans could have closed the gap on [the climate finance target of] $100 billion and helped the most at-risk \u2013 the small island coastal states, the people who made the Paris agreement happen.<\/p>\n \u201c[Action on oceans at COP] is not streamlined or focused in the right way, and we see from forests that this is needed. As we go into 2022 there are several big opportunities to close the finance gap \u2013 and we are asking countries to please step up and make that commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n After many postponements and delays due to Covid-19, there was a feeling at the talks that there is finally a solid and promising timetable of events in the next 12 months to build momentum for ocean protection. Thiele pointed ahead to several key meetings, including:<\/p>\n Of the months and events ahead, the UN\u2019s Peter Thomson said: \u201cThe two important conferences in my mind between now and COP27 are the biodiversity COP \u2013 where hopefully we will adopt a target of 30×30 protection of land and sea. And, secondly, the UN Environment Assembly, where I fully expect that member states will mandate the commencement of negotiations for an internationally binding treaty on plastic pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n Calls for \u201c30×30<\/a>\u201d\u00ad \u2013 to protect 30% of the world\u2019s land and ocean area by 2030 \u2013 were repeatedly made at COP26, and 77 countries are now backing the inclusion of this target in the final UN biodiversity treaty.<\/p>\n MPAs are considered one of the best ways to enhance coastal ecosystems, which capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide. UN goals had aimed for 10% of ocean areas to be fully protected by 2020 \u2013 but only made it to 7.8%. \u201cNow we say \u201830×30\u2019. We need to get real here and be universal in our efforts,\u201d said Thomson. \u201cAfrica, Latin America, Russia, China need to be in there too. And we need the Southern Ocean MPAs. We would have 10×20 now if we could get them in place.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomson was referring to the latest round of CCAMLR talks on Antarctic protection, which recently failed \u2013 for the fifth year in a row \u2013 to increase protected areas in the Southern Ocean.<\/p>\n A significant announcement also made in the first week of COP26 was the plan for a new \u201cmega-MPA<\/a>\u201d in the Eastern Tropical Pacific involving Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama. Enric Sala, National Geographic\u2019s explorer in residence, will next year lead an expedition to the \u201cOcean Highway\u201d area using a manned submersible and remote cameras to survey current marine protected areas and identify potential new ones.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will be the first science ever conducted in these waters to assess abundance of marine life,\u201d Sala said. \u201cIt will also provide a benchmark against which future change will be measured.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"US](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/john-kerry-cop26-ocean-action-is-climate-action.jpg\")
Ocean\u2013climate nexus<\/h2>\n
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New initiatives<\/h2>\n
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