Three billion people need the ocean to sustain themselves but climate change and industrial pollution mean that there are now more than 700 ‘dead’ areas, marine areas that can no longer support marine life due to depletion of oxygen. This increased from 400 in 2008. This week, scientists and policymakers met at the United Nations conference in Lisbon (June 27 – July 1) on how the world can do better to ensure the stability of the oceans. The summit is the first such high-profile gathering since the end of 2020, when 14 world leaders, led by Norway and Palau, pledged to accelerate scientific-based solutions for sustainable maritime management in their national territories.
At that time, members of what they called the ‘High Level Panel’ (now called the Marine Panel) appointed a team of researchers. They also endorsed a series of ‘green papers’, research that illuminated various aspects of how to meet environmental standards while at the same time protecting livelihoods and food security. All of this was in line with the UN’s 14th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), called ‘underwater life’. Instead, leaders promise to achieve maritime stability within their national borders by 2025, instead of the 2030 SDG deadline.
Now, the team is big – France and the United States have joined. Ocean Panel has published a set of tools: a guide on how countries can develop their own maritime programs and ensure that they work in those programs. Logically, the tool kit raises indicators for measuring progress. This is an acceptable development, but the work of researchers is far from over.
To avoid unnecessary additional work, the toolkit recommends that countries take existing measures, such as the SDG progress indicators and those developed through the UN Environmental Impact Plan (SEEA). This could include, for example, a contribution to sustainable fisheries in the national budget; tracking the allocation of energy research and development applications to renewable marine and offshore resources; and reporting overcrowding of the ocean plastics. But new indicators will be needed, for example, to monitor last week’s promise by some 164 countries (the World Trade Organization) to suspend government subsidies that threaten the sustainability of the fishery. That will require researchers to advise on the nature and level of grants and how they can be reduced in such a way that people, especially those on low incomes or at high risk, can be harmed.
Kristian Teleki, secretary-general of Ocean Panel and global director of the maritime program at the World Resources Institute, London, told Mvelo that the panel plans to report on member states “changing their aspirations”, and that it will do so at the next UN General Assembly, New York City in September. This is promising. But Ocean Panel countries also need to report on how, collectively, they are making progress on the indicators they have proposed in their set of tools. This should be a separate, easily visible part of their September report so that students can judge whether their desire is matched by progress.
Not all countries will have access to the required data and some may need time to collect, configure and analyze information. This is when the panel research advisors can, and should, help. Panel members were advised by a committee of more than 70 research experts, in addition to more than 250 researchers representing 48 countries who submitted green papers before the launch of 2020.Researchers should now work with the panel to help develop and standardize existing indicators and, where necessary, create new ones. Progress reporting does not have to be a legally binding process. Most importantly, progress is measurable, based on the consensus of international experts, and that it is regularly reported by the panel.
Maritime sustainability is now under the plans of the UN, the G7 team of rich countries, the World Economic Forum and the marine animal industry, through its maritime and scientific management program, called Sea BOS. Ocean Panel has set itself the goal of prominence – 2025 is coming soon. The index system is an obvious next step for researchers involved in panel work. But, more importantly, it is necessary for accountability, which is essential for trust in government institutions and urgently needed to ensure that promises translate into policies and real change.
Source Journal Reference: Editor Desk, Nature News (2022) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01759-z
