14 countries commit themselves to sustainable management of their waters

 

Not too late:

The members of the Ocean Panel – the committee for sustainable marine management – recently presented an action plan up to the year 2025.

The goal: By 2030, 30 percent of the oceans should be protected. Further nations are to follow suit.

Norway’s Prime Minister and Co-Chair of the Ocean Panel, Erna Solberg, admitted failures in the face of the threat to the oceans from climate change, pollution, illegal fishing and the loss of biodiversity: „For too long we have made the wrong choice between marine protection and production. And Tommy Remengesau, President of the island state of Palau and other co-chair of the panel, added: „The Covid 19 pandemic has shown us how important it is to listen to science. We do not have to choose between marine protection and production. We can have both if we manage our impact on the seas properly“.

Sustainable use of the oceans can help meet global demand for food, energy and transportation while providing 21 percent of the annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions needed to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.

Members of the Ocean Panel Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Palau and Portugal. Together they are responsible for more than 30 million square kilometers of ocean – an area the size of Africa.