COP25

15 December 2019 – Two weeks of climate talks ended this morning, in overtime, as always. And, as (nearly) always, they adopted by consensus a document – a Decision – reflecting the convoluted, complex, and often confounding negotiations.

Like the sword of Damocles, hanging over Parties’ heads is next year’s start of the second Ambition Cycle of the Paris Agreement. Parties are aware of warnings by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that unless action is accelerated worldwide, and ambition increased, we are on a trajectory that leads humankind toward an environmental crisis of epic proportions.

Delegates and observers at COP25 are expressing their strong dissatisfaction, concern and sadness for a COP outcome that  fails to reflect the political resolve called for by the severity of the on-going climate emergency.

The good news is that for the first time, the COP Decision recognizes the importance of the ocean, and launches a process to begin in 2020, which will hopefully strengthen linkages between climate and ocean policies.

Dubbed the Blue COP by the Chilean Presidency, this year’s COP saw climate and ocean practitioners and advocates working together to highlight the linkages between the ocean and climate change. After all, the ocean absorbs 90% of anthropogenic heat and one third of the CO2 we produce, and this comes with a cost for marine life. Ocean temperatures are increasing, the ocean is more acidic due to increased concentrations of CO2, the melting of polar ice and glaciers are elevating sea levels, and ocean-related extreme weather patterns are affecting humans, marine wildlife and habitats, not to mention the global economy. Coral reefs, hosting no less than 30% of the species of marine life known to date, are under extreme stress and are threatened as a result of ocean warming, acidification, and extreme storms.

Here is what the COP Decision says in relation to the ocean:

Commends the efforts of the COP25 President to highlight the importance of the ocean, including as an integral part of the Earth’s climate system, and of ensuring the integrity of ocean and coastal ecosystems in the context of climate change (Paragraph 29)

Requests the Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) to convene in June 2020 a dialogue on the ocean and climate change to consider how to strengthen mitigation and adaptation action in this context (Paragraph 30)

Invites Parties and non-Party stakeholders to submit by 31 March inputs to inform the dialogue (Paragraph 32)

Requests the Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice to prepare a summary report on the dialogue (Paragraph 33)

In parallel, another dialogue on land and climate change related matters will also be conducted by SBSTA in 2020.

Earlier this week, Claire Perry O’Neill, the designated Chair of COP26 scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November 2020, highlighted the importance of the ocean for climate ambition, hinting that COP26 would be a continuation of the Blue COP. With the mandate now given to the Chair of the Convention’s Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice on this issue, everything points out to a growing swell of attention for the ocean in the context of climate change.

Notes:

The first Because the Ocean Declaration, adopted at COP21 in Paris in 2015 stated that “in keeping with the sense of urgency, it is high time to promote an Ocean action plan under the UNFCCC”.

Before COP25, the Secretariat of the Because the Ocean Initiative organized a series of all-inclusive regional workshops, held respectively in Santiago, Chile, Madrid, Spain, and Suva, Fiji, which resulted in the release in October 2019 of the Ocean for Climate report, a menu of ocean-related measures for climate strategies.

During COP25, the integration of the ocean within the work of the UNFCCC was championed by a “Friends of the Ocean” group of countries led by Monaco, Costa Rica, Fiji, Indonesia, Norway among others.

The Ocean and Climate report will continue to be a useful tool for UNFCCC Parties and other stakeholders, as submissions must be prepared by 31 March 2020 for the SBSTA ocean dialogue in June, as well as for updating Parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to form the 2^nd Paris Agreement Ambition Cycle to be launched at COP26 in November 2020.

 

 

COP25 officially starts in six days, on Monday 2nd December. But delegates from the most far away countries are starting to arrive. Chileans, of course, as the Southern cone country hold the presidency of COP25. But you can also occasionally run into a representative from a South Pacific island country near Madrid’s landmark Puerta del Sol.

Like other ocean advocates, the Secretariat of the Because the Ocean initiative based in Madrid is making final preparations. On 26 November, the Secretary of the Initiative Rémi Parmentier was the guest speaker at a breakfast organized by the Spanish Network on Sustainable Development, attended by 78 stakeholders and journalists, where he shared his vision and expectations before the Blue COP, and its relation with the Sustainable Development Goal #14 on the Ocean.

So many ocean-related events are scheduled at COP25 that it is impossible to list all of them here. The full COP25 programme is available on the website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Here is a list of the events in which representatives of the Because the Ocean Initiative are going to participate directly, as speakers and/or organizers. We shall endeavour to update this list regularly:

Monday 2nd December: 16h30-17h30 Ocean for Climate: Moving from Science to Policy – Organized by the Ocean & Climate Platform in co-operation with the Because the Ocean Initiative,  in the French Pavillion with the office of the Prime Minister of France, Edouard Philippe

Tuesday 3rd December 13h15-14h15: Room 25 (Hall 9)  Platform of Science-Based Ocean Solutions – Organised by the COP25 Presidency

Thursday 5th December 11h15-12h15: [Pacific] Ocean for Climate – organized jointly by the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Because the Ocean Initiative, in the Moana Blue Pacific Pavillion

Friday 6th December 12h00-13h30: Opening of the Spanish Pavillion’s Ocean Day, facilitated by the Because the Ocean Initiative – 18h00-21h00: Focal Point Forum of the Nairobi Work Programme on ocean

Saturday 7th December:  10h00-11h15: Opening of the EU Ocean Day in the EU Pavillion, moderated by the Because the Ocean Initiative – 14h45-15h45: Incorporating Ocean-Related Options in Nationally Determined Contributions, co-facilitated by the Ocean & Climate Platform and the Because the Ocean Initiative

Activities for the second week of COP25 will be communicated later, as appropriate.

All the above-mentioned events will take place in the Blue Zone accessible only for accredited delegates and observers. If you are not accredited, please check the programme of the Green Zone which is opened to the general public.

More to read: Blue is the new green, by Rémi Parmentier, Secretary of the Because the Ocean initiative. published on 29 November 2019 by Virgin Unite

When Chilean President Sebastian Piñera announced on 30 October that COP25 would not go forward in Santiago as planned, there was a scramble to reschedule it. After all, the latest science about dramatic changes in both the ocean and climate confirms we have no time to waste in moving forward with an ambitious international agenda.

Just one day later the Spanish government offered to host the conference in partnership with Chile, adhering to the original timetable (2-13 December). And just one day after that, the UNFCCC Bureau accepted this generous offer. Such decisions are generally taken on a geological timescale (okay, perhaps this is an exaggeration, but these things normally do take a lot of time); the rapid re-boot of COP25 is a testament to the strength of the international climate policy regime.

Chile was already a strong advocate for addressing the nexus between ocean and climate change, designating COP25 as “the Blue COP.” And with Spain as a partner, that commitment just got stronger.

Of the five ocean-climate workshops held under the auspices of Because the Ocean from 2016-2019, two were hosted by Chile (2018) and one by Spain (2019) – at its launch in Paris in 2015. COP25 President Carolina Schmidt, Environment Minister of Chile, and Teresa Ribera, Spain’s Minister for the Ecological Transition, will be powerful advocates and allies for action to increase ocean resiliency

In her preamble to the Ocean for Climate report published a month ago by the Because the Ocean initiative, Carolina Schmidt wrote: “As a leading member of the Because the Ocean initiative, together with the Principality of Monaco and other countries, during and beyond COP25 — the “Blue COP” — Chile will continue to prioritize action to mitigate both climate change and ocean change.”

The Because the Ocean Secretariat is based in Madrid, and looks forward to continue working with Chile and Spain, and supporting Parties and stakeholders towards a successful Blue COP.