037 - Ocean impacts of climate change
037 - Ocean impacts of climate change
NOTING WITH ALARM the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (2018), the Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, 2019), and the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and the Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019), all of which forecast major negative global impacts of climate change on the ocean, including the loss of up to 70–99% of the world’s coral reefs and 3–25% of marine fish biomass;
GRAVELY CONCERNED about the implications of ocean warming, ocean acidification resulting from carbon dioxide emissions, sea level rise and other impacts of climate change for the billions of people reliant on the ocean for food and livelihoods;
FURTHER NOTING with concern, that the accelerating melting of polar ice will increase the rate of sea level rise and other ocean impacts; and
RECALLING 2016 Congress Resolutions emphasising the importance of protected areas in promoting the ocean’s climate resilience by reducing other human stressors such as overfishing, pollution and habitat loss, in particular Resolutions 6.057 Take greater account of the ocean in the climate regime, calling for support for marine and coastal mitigation and adaptation efforts, including promoting the establishment of networks of marine protected areas; 6.039 Protected areas as natural solutions to climate change, affirming the role of protected areas to address the effects of climate change and calling on State Members and other players to integrate protected area networks into climate change adaptation strategies; and 6.050 Increasing marine protected area coverage for effective marine biodiversity conservation, recognising that “scientific evidence supports full protection of at least 30% of the ocean... to increase resilience to climate change” (all adopted in Hawai‘i, 2016);
1. CALLS ON the Director General and all components of IUCN to include ocean mitigation and adaptation in all relevant climate change-related programmes and to support the actions listed below; and
2. CALLS ON State and Government Agency Members to:
a. commit to ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement to keep warming below 2.0°C and desirably below 1.5°C, recognising the impact of carbon dioxide on ocean acidification, and to continue to include oceans as a priority topic in the global climate change dialogue and the Global Climate Action Agenda;
b. promote nature-based solutions to climate change through protected areas and conserving and restoring marine ecosystems, including coral reefs and blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass beds, recognising their multiple benefits for climate adaptation, mitigation, habitat provision and disaster risk reduction;
c. commit to protect at least 30% of the ocean as recommended by scientists and endorsed at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawai‘i (2016), without prejudice to Resolution 6.050, to inter alia increase resilience to climate change;
d. incorporate climate change considerations into the management of fisheries, shipping, mining and other activities in the ocean, as well as in the establishment, management, monitoring and evaluation of marine protected areas; and
e. avoid adverse impacts on marine biodiversity when undertaking climate-change mitigation and adaptation actions such as desalination, storm defences and offshore renewable energy.
