Rising sea levels and increasing temperatures, acidification and greenhouse gas concentrations. Oceans are facing challenges and UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has called for action.
Speaking at a UN Ocean conference in June, Guterres urged global leaders to work together to protect our oceans. Declaring the tide needs to be turned, he referred to the damage being caused by the ‘egoism’ of some nations.
He outlined four recommendations to protect the world’s oceans:
- Investing in sustainable ocean economies: sustainable management could help the ocean produce six times more food and 40 times more renewable energy than it currently does
- Replicating ocean success: this includes scaling up area-based conservation measures and integrated coastal zone management, alongside efforts to prevent and reduce marine pollution
- Protecting people: this includes more protection of the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on the oceans and investing in climate-resilient coastal infrastructure
- More science and innovation: to reach a ‘new chapter of global action’, we need science and innovation. One of the targets set out was to map 80% of the global seabed by 2030
‘We cannot have a healthy planet without a healthy ocean’, said Guterres, and called for a goal of mapping 80% of the seabed by 2030.
