On December 2th, opening day of the « Blue COP » held in Madrid under Chilean presidency, the Ocean and Climate Platform, organized a High-level event “Ocean for Climate: Moving from Science to Policy” at the French Pavilion, in partnership with the Because the Ocean initiative and the Ocean Acidification Alliance.
In the presence of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco and with the participation of H.E. the Secretary of State to the French Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Mrs. Brune Poirson, speakers unanimously underlined the tremendous opportunity that this COP25 represents to bring the ocean to the heart of climate commitments. With the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille and the COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in China to be held in 2020, the Secretary of State also recalled the importance of “breaking silos” and increasing cooperation to bring together the ocean, climate and biodiversity in a single challenge.
Around the theme “from science to action”, several renowned actors from the scientific world such as Valérie Masson-Delmotte (co-chair of IPCC Working Group I) and Anna Zivian (research director at the Ocean Conservancy) but also from the development world such as Rémy Rioux (Chief Executive Officer of the Agence Française du Développement) took the floor. Each in turn, they highlighted the importance of the ocean-climate-biodiversity nexus and presented the main issues raised by the Platform’s new Policy Recommendations for “a healthy ocean, a protected climate” .
This policy document – strong of 20 recommendations and structured around 4 main challenges that are mitigation, adaptation, science and sustainable finance – was the subject of an in-depth presentation by Raphaël Cuvelier, Vice-President of the Ocean and Climate Platform and Senior Advisor to the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. Recalling that reducing our greenhouse gas emissions remains the priority measure to be undertaken to preserve the ocean and climate, he concluded with a message of hope by presenting the ocean as a vector of nature-based solutions, with high potential for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. A last comment was made by Valérie Masson-Delmotte on the importance of the “ocean literacy” and the need for education and awareness-raising to bring the ocean issues to the fore in addressing climate change.
Click on this link to find out the event’s detailed report, carried out by our colleagues from IISD .