December 2015: the international community gathered in Paris to chart a common path in response to the climate emergency. Twenty‑three years after the Rio Earth Summit, where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted, and ten years after the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, COP21 marked a turning point. For the first time, 195 States committed to holding “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre‑industrial levels” and to pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. This Conference marked the opening of a new era of international cooperation around a legally binding, science‑based agreement, highlighting both collective responsibility and the conviction that a sustainable future depends on action by all. The Paris Agreement also explicitly recognizes the strategic role of the ocean in climate regulation. Ten years on, what remains of this ambition – and what path still lies ahead?
A decade of measurable but insufficient progress
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the world has changed profoundly: multilateralism has weakened, the role of science as a foundation for decision‑making is more and more challenged, and disinformation has gained ground. Despite this context, the Paris Agreement has helped bend a climate trajectory that would otherwise have led to warming exceeding +4°C. Decisions and strategies adopted since then now place the world on a pathway between +2.3°C and +2.8°C by 2100. Although these advances remain insufficient in relation to the Paris goal, they demonstrate that the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) continue to be a crucial instrument for progressively raising collective ambition and structuring climate action.
At the same time, warning signals are multiplying. The year 2024 was the hottest ever recorded. Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and seven of the nine planetary boundaries have now been exceeded, including, more recently, ocean acidification. The impacts of climate change – such as extreme events and rising sea levels – are no longer future threats; they are already visible, placing pressure on ecosystem health as well as on the resilience and future of coastal communities.
Nevertheless, the Paris Agreement remains the cornerstone of international climate action. It embodies both what has been achieved and the need to intensify efforts to remain on a trajectory compatible with our collective objectives. In this context, the ocean has emerged as a powerful ally.
The growing and essential integration of the ocean into the climate agenda
Over the past decade, the ocean has gradually taken a central place in the international climate agenda. Its inclusion in the preamble of the Paris Agreement in 2015 was a first step, paving the way for its increasing integration into negotiations and for its recognition today as an indispensable ally of climate action.
These advances are grounded in major scientific and political developments. The publication of the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate in 2019, along with the launch of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), strengthened understanding of the complex yet essential interactions between the ocean, climate, and biodiversity, promoting their better consideration by policymakers. In parallel, the creation of the Ocean and Climate Dialogue at COP25 (2019), and its establishment as an annual meeting at COP26 (2020), firmly anchored the ocean–climate nexus at the heart of UNFCCC processes. The inclusion of the ocean in the first Global Stocktake adopted by States at COP28 in 2023 also marked recognition of its key role in the global response needed to correct course and achieve the long‑term objectives of the Paris Agreement. The ocean now occupies an uncontested place in climate action, as reflected in recently revised national climate strategies which integrate ocean‑based solutions in unprecedented ways, according to a recent analysis by the Ocean & Climate Platform, the World Resources Institute, and Ocean Conservancy.
This would not have been possible without the historic mobilisation of Ocean Champions, particularly States those from the Pacific—as well as countries involved in the Because the Ocean initiative (2016–2019). The mobilisation of civil society, in growing cooperation with governments, has also played a decisive role. The creation of the Marrakech Partnership in 2016 and a dedicated group on ocean and coastal zones as well as the High Level Climate Champions, further strengthened this momentum. Today, more than one hundred non‑governmental organizations, private‑sector actors, scientists, and representatives of Indigenous peoples and local communities from the ocean community are working together to amplify the ocean’s voice, raise ambition, and are driving ocean–climate action.
After Belém: the ocean as a strategic lever for cooperation
In 2025, COP30 in Belém (Brazil), presented as the “COP of truth,” was expected to mark the transition from promises to action. Despite the ambitions expressed by the Brazilian presidency and its call for genuine multi-stakeholder and cross-sector collaboration, the outcomes fell short of what the urgency required. Negotiations failed to reach an explicit agreement on the transition away from fossil fuels – the main driver of climate change, while the updated national climate strategies continue to keep the planet on a trajectory of +2.3 to +2.5 °C.
Nevertheless, the conference crossed a symbolic and operational threshold in terms of the place given to the ocean, supported by increased political visibility, the expansion of the Blue NDC Challenge and its evolution into a task force dedicated to implementing ocean‑based solutions, as well as exceptional mobilisation around the Ocean Breakthroughs and the Blue Package. This testifies to the growing role of the ocean as a catalyst for collaboration, despite a context still marked by inertia and tensions.
Turning the Tide for the Ocean, Climate, and Biodiversity
Created ahead of COP21 by a coalition of civil society organisations, the Ocean & Climate Platform has worked for more than ten years to improve understanding and consideration by political decision‑makers and the general public of the interactions between the ocean, climate, and biodiversity. Since 2015 and the inclusion of the ocean in the preamble of the Paris Agreement – one of its first victories, the Ocean & Climate Platform, drawing on its network of 116 members, has observed and supported the ocean’s transition from the margins to the heart of international priorities through the dissemination of scientific knowledge, advocacy, and mobilisation.
Ten years on, the picture is clear: significant progress is still needed at the ocean–climate–biodiversity nexus. In that context, the Platform stresses the urgency of moving beyond incremental progress to undertake a profound transformation of the systems responsible for climate change and biodiversity loss. It is in this spirit that the Ocean & Climate Platform recently published its new policy recommendations “Turning the Tide for the Ocean, Climate, and Biodiversity.” Resulting from of collaborative process and endorsed by 87 of its members, these recommendations carry a clear vision: a future in which decisions are guided by science, solutions are implemented with urgency, and systems are deeply transformed to halt the decline of the ocean. Structured around three pillars – Understand, Deliver, Reshape –, it calls to rethink the way we value, govern, and interact with the ocean. The transition ahead is not only about reducing greenhouse gas emissions or ending harmful practices, but about living in harmony with nature.
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the pathway to limiting global warming to 1.5°C remains narrow and demands a rapid intensification of effort. Despite ongoing uncertainties surrounding the added value and influence of the COPs, and climate finance that remains far from sufficient, the international community now has solid frameworks in place to accelerate action. With the establishment of the Blue NDC Implementation Taskforce and the momentum generated by the Ocean Breakthroughs, the ocean has become a driver of international cooperation and a powerful ally in advancing the achievement of global goals on climate, biodiversity and sustainable development. With only five years left until the 2030 milestone, the moment calls not for hesitation but for transformation. The years ahead can still allow us to correct course, but only if political will, cooperation and implementation finally come together.
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