The year 2020 was meant to be a decisive stage in the implementation of the Paris Agreement with signatory commitments revised upwards. Efforts made to date have been insufficient to limit warming to 1.5 °C and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Prospects for climate change remain alarming, especially within the context of the current world pandemic. Nevertheless there are encouraging signs such as the many initiatives of civil society, private sector and local governments, and the mobilization of citizens, in particular the younger generations. Dialogue between scientists and decision-makers has for its part greatly contributed to the role of the ocean and its ecosystems being included in the Paris Agreement. The ocean is at the heart of the climate system, producing oxygen, absorbing heat and capturing carbon.
Climate negotiations include the ocean at last
The IPCC’s 2019 report on the sea and the cryosphere clearly indicated that the world’s ocean is an essential lever in tackling climate change. The same year in Madrid during COP 25 – the ‘blue COP’ – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change formally included the ocean in its works, thus recognizing it as one of the solutions for tackling global warming. However such progress will only make a real impact if we achieve goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Sea level rise will intensify
Faced with increasingly marked climate events, we must act quickly to limit human, economic and industrial impacts, and implement appropriate adaptation policies. The IPCC has said that by 2100, if we do not drastically reduce emissions, the level of the sea could rise about a metre and the associated extreme events are expected to become more severe and occur more often. Such weather events will redraw the world’s coastal regions, where most of the human population lives and continues to densify. For coastal towns and their surrounding regions, the challenges will be colossal.
Nature based solutions
Numerous solutions exist and must be deployed cooperatively. Sea defences are necessary, helping regions adapt and allowing for the relocation of populations and businesses, but they also impact marine life without providing any long-term guarantee of safety for the local populations. We also need to accept, when there is no alternative, to relinquish ground to the sea. Salt marshes, seagrass meadows and other coastal ecosystems are inexpensive and effective nature-based solutions for attenuating the force of the sea.
Build consensus rather than sea walls
While a rapid and massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions remains a vital goal, the priority over the coming decade is to ensure that threatened coastal regions adapt. The Ocean and Climate Platform believes that it is necessary to reinforce cooperation at every level, in particular on the basis of scientific expertise. This requires the development of a risk culture and the deployment of considerable information and awareness-raising campaigns so that our efforts to adapt to climate change become a shared challenge. A new race against time has begun. Today more than ever civil society, scientists and businesses must mobilize themselves alongside elected representatives to tackle, together, this risk that has become very real.
Signatories:
Denis Allemand, Professor and Scientific Director, Centre Scientifique de Monaco ; Denis Bailly, Coordinator, Ocean University Initiative, Université de Bretagne-Occidentale ; Ghislain Bardout, Director, Under The Pole ; Nathalie Benarrosh, Water and Climate Change project manager, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement – IRD ; Philippe Bensimon, President, Expédition Tour des deux Amériques solidaire en voilier ; Jerôme Bignon, President, Ramsar France ; Thomas Binet, Founder, BlueSeeds ; Gérard Blanchard, University professor, specialist in coastal ecology, Vice-president of La Rochelle urban area, project manager of « La Rochelle Territoire Zéro Carbone » ; Gilles Bœuf, Professor emeritus, Sorbonne Université ; Hubert Bost, Vice-President of research, Université PSL ; Chris Bowler, Research Director, Université Paris Science et Lettre and CNRS ; Robert Calcagno, Managing Director, Institut océanographique, Fondation Albert Ier prince de Monaco ; Guigone Camus, Research Engineer, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement ; Catherine Chabaud, Member of the European Parliament ; Thomas Changeux, Assistant Director Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanologie (MIO), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement-IRD ; Antidia Citores, Spokesperson, Surfrider Foundation Europe ; Joachim Claudet, Research Director, CNRS ; Stéphane Costa, Professor, Université de Caen ; Philippe Cury, Research Director, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement- IRD ; Raphaël Cuvelier, Vice-President of the Ocean & Climate Platform ; Bruno David, Paleontologist and biologist ; De Williencourt Thomas, Director, Pure Ocean ; Patrick Deixonne, Director, Expédition 7ème continent ; Dominique Duche, Director, Aquarium Tropical du Palais de la Porte Dorée ; Jean-Louis Etienne, Doctor and explorer, President of Océan Polaire ; Jean-François Fountaine, Mayor of La Rochelle ; François Frey, President, Esprit de Velox ; Françoise Gaill, Research Director emeritus, CNRS and Vice-President of the Ocean & Climate Platform; Didier Gascuel, Director of the Fisheries, Sea and Coastal Division, Institut Agro ; Alain Grandguillot, President, ANEF ; Jean-Marc Groul, Director, Seaquarium ; Charline Guillou, President, Sailing Hirondelle ; Michel Hignette, President, Union des Conservateurs d’Aquarium ; François Houllier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ifremer ; Frédéric Jean, University Professor, IUEM, Université de Brest, CNRS, IRD ; Jean Jouzel, Paleo-climatologist, Emeritus research director at the Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l’environnement ; Armelle Jung, Scientific project manager, Des Requins et des Hommes ; Christine Lair, General Delegate, Association Nationale des Elus du Littoral – ANEL ; Patrice Laporte, Assistant director, Service hydrographique et océanographique de la Marine – SHOM ; Edouart Le Bart, Director Southern Europe, Africa, Middle East and S-E Asia, Marine Stewardship Council – MSC ; Raphaëla Le Gouvello, President, RespectOcean ; Sarah Lelong, Founder, Consult’Ocean ; Antoine Leroux, Vice-President, LemonSea ; Lisa Levin, Distinguished Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego ; Céline Liret, Scientific Director, Océanopolis ; Danielle McCaffrey, Co-founder, Waves of Change ; Elodie Martinie Cousty, Pilot of the Réseau Océan Mer et Littoral and Member of the National Board of France Nature Environnement ; Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Paleoclimatologist, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group on the Physical Science Basis of Climate Change ; Frédéric Menard, Overseas Scientific Advisor, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement – IRD ; Régis Menu, General Secretary, Institut Français de la Mer ; Anne Michon, In charge of mediations, Esprit de Velox ; Fabien Moullec, Treasurer, Association Française d’Halieutique – AFH ; Nadia Ounais, Director of International Relations, Institut océanographique, Fondation Albert Ier prince de Monaco ; Jimmy Pahun, Deputy of Morbihan ; Rémi Parmentier, Director, The Varda Group; Secretary of the Because the Ocean Initiative; Gabriel Picot, Head of Development, Aquarium Tropical du Palais de la Porte Dorée ; Olivier Pringault, Director of the Ocean Department, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement – IRD ; Louise Ras, Scientific Coordinator, Sailing Hirondelle ; Eudes Riblier, President, Institut Français de la Mer ; Patricia Ricard, President, Institut Océanographique Paul Ricard and Vice-President of the Ocean & Climate Platform ; Maina Sage, Deputy of French Polynesia ; Mark Joseph Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation ; David Sussman, President, Pure Ocean ; Coco Tamlyn, Head of communication, Coral Guardian ; Stéphanie Thiebault, Director of the Institut écologie et environnement – INEE, CNRS ; Torsten Thiele, Executive Director, Global Ocean Trust ; Romain Troublé, Managing Director, Fondation Tara Océan and President of the Ocean & Climate Platform ; Laurence Tubiana, President and Director, European Climate Foundation ; Carol Turley, Senior Scientist, Plymouth Marine Laboratory ; Jessie Turner, Director, International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification ; Philippe Valette, Managing Director, Nausicaa ; Olivier Wenden, Vice-President, CEO, Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco ; Gwénaël Duclos, CEO, Wipsea ; Valérie Verdier, President and CEO, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement – IRD.