The oceans are essential for life on earth. Despite all the findings, their protection was neglected for a long time. According to experts, it is now five to twelve. A UN conference wants to find solutions.
The situation is so serious that even representatives of Russia and Ukraine want to pull together in Lisbon. The second United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) begins in Portugal’s capital on Monday.
It’s five to twelve for the world’s oceans, which are increasingly polluted by plastic waste, overfishing and species extinction, warming and acidification, coral and glacier shrinkage. ‘We must act now. And all of them,” demanded Peter Thompson, the UN special envoy for the protection and sustainable use of the oceans, in the run-up to the five-day conference.
According to the UNOC website, the seas are “threatened by human activities to an unprecedented degree.” Even a few figures make the extent of the problem clear to the layperson. Keyword plastic: According to Thompson, eleven million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans every year, “and this amount is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050”. Images of sea turtles getting caught in fishing nets, seabirds feeding plastic parts to their chicks, or dolphins swallowing shopping bags are already part of everyday life.
At the same time, the warming caused by climate change and also the acidification of the oceans are “progressing at an alarming rate”, Oceancare said in its communication to the Lisbon conference. The well-known international environmental protection organization based in Switzerland emphasized that if the warming continues, the Arctic will be practically ice-free for the first time in summer before 2050. Sea level rise is threatening islands and entire coastal areas.
Expert: You can “twist the rudder around”
«We know what needs to be done. That’s why it’s sobering to see the collective failure of the whole world,” said Oceancare Managing Director Fabienne McLellan. However, one could still “pull the rudder around”. “What we need now are meaningful and courageous measures that are measurable and implementable.”
The Swiss is not the only one who will put pressure on in Lisbon. In addition to government delegations from around 150 countries, including Germany with Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens), scientists and representatives of the private sector, members of hundreds of non-governmental organizations have also announced that they are calling for action. “We must not waste any more time with talks and explanations,” said, for example, Greenpeace’s ocean officer in Spain, Pilar Marcos.
The UN plans are definitely ambitious. At the only conference of the world community that is exclusively dedicated to the world’s oceans, the aim is to initiate joint measures to save the huge ecosystem. This is the 14th of a total of 17 goals on the UN Agenda 2030. Among other things, 30 percent of the oceans should be under protection in eight years. According to Greenpeace, it is currently less than three percent, but there are different statements.
Will there be concrete results?
But can one be optimistic before the meeting, which is taking place with a two-year delay due to Corona? On the question of whether concrete results can be expected, the UN said: There will be a declaration on the implementation and facilitation of the protection and conservation of the oceans. And we expect “that all stakeholders, from governments to businesses to civil society, make concrete and realistic voluntary commitments to address the diverse ocean-related issues affecting their communities, countries and beyond.”
The problem lies with the term “voluntary”. Maria Santos from the Portuguese environmental organization Zero is not alone in her opinion: “The Lisbon Declaration will not be binding. That puts the effectiveness in question,” she complained.
According to the UNOC, those who will be looking for “innovative, scientifically sound solutions” in Lisbon include the American climate envoy and ex-Secretary of State John Kerry, his Russian colleague Ruslan Edelgeriyev, a close confidant of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, and the UN – Secretary-General António Guterres. According to the Portuguese government, heads of state and government such as Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson may also want to stop by.
The world’s oceans produce more than half of the oxygen
They all know very well: It is “not just” about the survival of endangered marine animals such as yellowfin tuna, puffins, blue whales, blue sharks, common rays, hawksbill turtles and many more. The world’s oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface and are home to more than 80 percent of life on earth, are also essential for human survival. For billions they are the basis of work and food. They are a crucial part of the global climate system, produce over half of the oxygen we breathe and absorb around a quarter of all CO2 emissions.
Like so many others, the Portuguese Maria Santos is nevertheless skeptical that “the incompatibility of most environmental protection goals with those of the economy” will soon be overcome. But her country’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Maritime Affairs, António Costa e Silva, as host of the conference, spoke plainly some time ago: “We have turned the seas into something like the toilets of the planet. It’s time to say no.”
Source: Stern
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