ocean news — oceans aware

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ocean news - what’s the latest?

Ocean plastic: the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (Plastic Pollution INC-4), is taking place this week in Ottawa, Canada.

The Revised draft text of the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (UNEP/PP/INC.4/3) will be discussed from next week. You can watch the negotiations on the live webcast. Daily reports from the Environment News Bulletin are available here.

Find out more about the treaty here.

Find out about ocean plastic here.

Deep seabed mining: part 1 of the 29th Session of the International Seabed Authority has just closed in Kingston, Jamaica, with some progress but numerous outstanding issues. The summary of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin: “Environmental externalities. Underwater cultural heritage. Test mining. Equalization measures. Effective control. Regional environmental management plans. Compliance committee. Environmental compensation fund. Royalties. Safety measures. The list goes on. New elements continue to be added to the already complex and interlinked group of elements that International Seabed Authority (ISA) Council members need to agree on to advance in the negotiations on the exploitation regulations for deep-sea mining.” The meeting at least had a first consolidated draft text of the Mining Code to work on - the ISA is aiming to complete and adopt the code by its 30th session in 2025 but the ENB is pessimstic: “the Gordian knot-like challenge of balancing the regulations for commercially exploiting the deep seabed, which is the common heritage of humankind, while delivering benefits for all and ensuring the effective protection of the marine environment is not likely to be solved in the coming months.”

ENB’s summary report on the meeting is available here. Part 2 of the meeting will be held from 15 July - 2 August 2024.

A growing number of States, companies, scientists, NGOs and civil society organizations are calling for a precautionary pause, moratorium or outright ban on seabed mining until the regulatory framework is in place or until more research on the impact of extraction on deep-sea ecosystems has been carried out. With applications to mine the seabed from Nauru/The Metals Company and China in the pipeline, it is not clear how the ISA will react when the applications are submitted.

Find out about seabed mining in general here.

Climate change: in general terms the ocean fared well at the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP28) held in Dubai in December 2023. Both the effect of climate change on the ocean and the important role the ocean plays in reducing the impact of climate change have finally been recognised and included in climate discussions (although this took some time - See the ocean-climate nexus page for information thereto). Before COP28, the Roadmap to Ocean and Climate Action (ROCA) Initiative Report was released, which aims to provide multidisciplinary updates on various sectoral and stakeholder initiatives in science, policy development, financing, capacity development and other cross-cutting efforts on ocean and climate action. The launch of the Ocean Breakthroughs ahead of COP28, provided the ocean community with a rallying point for pushing for ocean action and investments to deliver on climate goals, key to success at the next climate conferences in Azerbaijan in 2024 and Brazil in 2025. During the meeting numerous ocean-related pledges were made (such as the Bezos Earth Fund pledging $100 million to support Pacific islands to restore and protect their coastal ecosystems, and to strengthen community-based fisheries management and conservation, or the establishment of the Coral Reef Breakthrough by the International Coral Reef Initiative with an investment of $12 billion to help protect at least 125,000 square kilometres of shallow-water tropical coral reefs) and the outcome text of the meeting, the Global Stocktake, makes several references to the importance of protecting and preserving the ocean and coastal ecosystems and calls for a “strengthening of ocean-based action.”

Ocean and Climate Platform: Despite mixed feelings on mitigation and adaptation outcomes, the ocean found its rightful place in the Global Stocktake conclusions
UNESCO: Ocean issues stronger than ever at a historical UN Climate Conference

Ocean Panel: Top Ocean Moments at COP28

Mongabay: Did the tides turn for oceans at COP28? Climate summit draws mixed reviews

Back to blue initiative: COP28: Mainstreaming the ocean agenda

High Seas protection: after two decades of negotiations the High Seas Treaty was adopted in June 2023 and opened for signature in September 2023. The race for ratification is on and hopes are high that this can happen in time for the next UN Ocean Conference in 2025 - the treaty will enter into force when 60 States have ratified the agreement.

Find out more about the treaty here.

Shipping: emissions from shipping currently account for at least 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 8% of sulphur dioxide emissions. The International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80) adopted the 2023 IMO Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships in July 2023, which includes the goal to reach net-zero GHG emissions from international shipping close to 2050. Find out more here. MPEC 80 also approved revised Guidelines for the reduction of underwater noise from commercial shipping to address adverse impacts on marine life. The guidelines provide an overview of approaches applicable to designers, shipbuilders and ship operators to reduce the underwater radiated noise of any given ship.

Find out more about ocean noise here.

Fisheries: over-fishing, often supported by government subsidies, and illegal fishing are to blame for the current state of fish stocks, where 90% of stocks are either overfished or fished at their maximum sustainable level. It is important to recognise the difference between small-scale or artisanal fisheries, which make up about 96% of fishers around the world but account for just 35% of the fish caught worldwide, and the large-scale industrial fishing fleets which mercilessly exploit resources, both within the jurisdiction of coastal States and on the High Seas (find out more about fisheries here). Control of illegal fisheries, indeed control of any activity on the open ocean, is a massive challenge. The governance structure may be in place on paper but putting this into practice is another story. States are poorly equipped to monitor, control and therefore protect their own waters, let alone the High Seas, which is where advances in technology can step in to fill the gap. Find out how here.

Geoengineering: there is growing interest in ocean-based negative emission technologies to contribute to climate neutrality, involving a variety of methods to directly remove or store CO2 or to increase phytoplankton growth. COP28’s Global Stocktake final text calls for the pursuit of “ocean-based mitigation action”. While some see geoengineering as a promising avenue of mitigation, others are calling for a precautionary approach and the impact of such projects is under review. Calls for a moratorium on geoengineering, similar to those on deep seabed mining, are getting louder, following which geoengineering activities should only be viewed as a viable solution when we know the true effects of the activities. Find out more here.

Changing our mind-set towards the ocean: it’s time to change our attitude - we need to move from seeing the ocean as a space we use, abuse and exploit to recognizing its value and putting its protection at the top of our list of priorities. The ocean and its inhabitants need a voice at the negotiating table. See why here. One growing movement to do just that is the campaign initiated by The Ocean Race for a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights (find out more here), another is the Varda Group’s proposal Let’s be Nice to the Ocean: Thinking Outside the Box before the Third UN Ocean Conference which proposes making ocean protection the norm rather than the exception.

ocean meetings - ongoing and upcoming

21 - 30 April 2024: the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (Plastic Pollution INC-4), will take place in Ottawa, Canada.

27-30 May: 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States, Antigua and Barbuda.

3-13 June: 60th Session of the UNFCCC SBSTA, Bonn, Germany.

7-8 June: Immersed in Change, High-Level event on Ocean Action, Costa Rica, held in the run-up to the 2025 UN Ocean Conference.

8 - 21 June 2024: United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea 24th meeting: "The ocean as a source of sustainable food" in New York, USA.

1-5 July: Global Dialogue on sustainable ocean development, Bali, Indonesia.

1 July - 2 August 2024: 29th Session of the International Seabed Authority Assembly and Council will be held in Kingston, Jamaica.

5-7 July: Smallscale Fisheries Summit (COFI), Rome.

8-12 July 2024: the UN FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) will be held in Rome, Italy.

13 - 18 October 2024: the 7th International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC7) will be held in Cape Town, South Africa.

14 - 25 October 202: CCAMLR-43 to meet in Hobart, Tasmania.

21 October – 1 November 2024: Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP 16 will be held in Colombia.

25 November – 1 December 2024: The fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (Plastic Pollution INC-5), will take place in Busan, Republic of Korea.

June 2025: the third United Nations Ocean Conference will be co-hosted by the Governments of Costa Rica and France and held in Nice, France.

2025: the tenth Our Ocean Conference will be held in the Republic of Korea.

9 - 15 October 2025: the IUCN World Conservation Congress will take place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.