The High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) has called for a new ocean action agenda that’s about commitments and new research.
14 world leaders of the Ocean Panel committed to ocean-sustainability and management to approach the 2025 national jurisdiction, all guided by Sustainable Ocean Plans.
The countries would take care of the aquatic place of 30 million sq km of national waters, an area the size of the whole African continent.
The Ocean Panel urged leaders to join by committing the 100% goal so that all Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) are managed by 2030.
Picture: Ocean Panel
Two years ago, the Ocean Panel members set people out to protect the ocean. As a result, 6 times more food would come from the ocean, and that would generate 40 times more renewable energy, give more people the chance to lead better lives, and contribute to the one-fifth of the GHG emissions reductions needed for the world to not rise its temperature – and all of these results are acknowledged by the world leaders, and how important it is to achieve it.
Humanity is bounded by the health of the ocean – it’s where most of our oxygen comes from, and it’s what sustains us and stabilizes the planet.
“For too long, we have perceived a false choice between ocean protection and production. No longer. We understand the opportunities for action and the risks of inaction, and we know the solutions. Building a sustainable ocean economy is one of the greatest opportunities of our time. The members of the Ocean Panel are united in our commitment to sustainably managing 100% of our national waters by 2025,” said Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway and Ocean Panel Co-chair.
“At a time when we are already looking to recover from the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, we understand how vulnerable we are to financial shocks and health crises,” said Tommy Remengesau Jr., President of Palau and Ocean Panel Co-chair.
“We need the ocean more than ever to drive a sustainable, long-term recovery. The ocean is our past, our present, and our future. We do not have to choose between ocean protection and production;
“We can have both for a healthy, prosperous, and equitable tomorrow if we properly manage our impacts upon it. The Ocean Panel calls on every leader of the ocean and coastal states to join us and turn our 100% goal into reality.”
The ocean even gives jobs to the people like fishing, tourism, transportation, and even in the scientific fields, they would need it in order to make new discoveries that would later revolutionize the world as we know it.
The ocean also absorbs most of the carbon emissions we put out.
The Ocean Panel countries are committed to putting the Sustainable Ocean Plan in place by 2025, where they target to have 30% of the ocean free from harm by 2030.
Using scientific knowledge as a base for course action, they seek to find new solutions for the human-ocean relationship.
The report finds that achieving a healthy ocean is possible, but it would be impossible if there’s a continued business.
“The ocean is neither too big to fail nor too big to fix, but it is too big and too central to our future to ignore. The ocean holds untapped potential to provide real solutions to urgent global problems from climate change and food security to biodiversity loss and inequality,” said Hon. Jane Lubchenco, PhD., Distinguished University Professor at Oregon State University and Co-chair of the Ocean Panel Expert Group.
“The Ocean Panel’s commitments are exactly what is needed to begin to bring our relationship with the ocean into balance through effective protection, sustainable production, and equitable prosperity. We can use the ocean wisely, rather than using it up, but only if we get serious about doing so.
“The 14 countries on the Ocean Panel are listening to science, learning from each other, and working together. That’s a powerful combination. If their historic commitments are implemented, the resulting successes will snowball into an avalanche of smart actions by other key players – enabling people, nature, and the economy to thrive.”
From this pandemic, the ocean can bring us economic relief from the benefits it poses.
Efforts for this are already on their way – these include the multi-stakeholder coalitions focused on renewable energy from the ocean. The Ocean Renewable Energy Action Coalition (OREAC), the first coalition to publicly launch, today published the Power of Our Ocean report to support governments across the world in scaling the development of ocean-based renewable energy.
On Dec. 2, the Ocean Panel had launched the “Give It 100%” campaign, and starting today, the Ocean Panel countries will host a series of national launch events to build political growth around their agenda.
The members of the Ocean Panel are driven by partnership, knowledge, and science, all to achieve the goal of making the ocean a better place for the fishes, and even for us.
Source: Hellenic Shipping News
