ASOC
Over the next couple of weeks, the world’s governments will be meeting in Montreal at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 15th Conference of Parties (7-19 December 2022) to agree a global plan to protect life on Earth. Delayed already by two years due to the COVID pandemic, this hugely important conference will finally agree a Global Biodiversity Framework, setting targets until 2030 to curb biodiversity loss and protect terrestrial and marine life.
This new plan and set of commitments will set the level of ambition to tackle the biodiversity and hugely interlinked climate crises. It will also hopefully build the necessary political will and resources for countries to work together to get the planet on track to a healthier and sustainable future.
A healthy planet is not possible without a healthy ocean- from coastal waters to high seas areas, including the Southern Ocean. Scientists recommend that at least 30% of the ocean should be highly or fully protected by 2030 if we want to ensure its long-term health. This will be one of the targets up for agreement in Montreal.
Once agreed, governments need to make good on their commitments within this global plan, including in the many other relevant fora that are essential in helping to address the biodiversity crisis. This includes designating the three pending Antarctic MPAs (East Antarctic, Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula) that are up for discussion at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). This would protect nearly 4 million square kilometers and constitute one of the largest and most important acts of environmental protection in history.
Designation of these Antarctic marine protected areas in one of the planet’s most iconic and fragile wildernesses has been held up for years, with geopolitical tensions thwarting progress within CCAMLR.
“These three large-scale protection proposals would be a key contribution to protecting at least 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030. In just a few months a dedicated meeting on Antarctic marine protected areas will be held in Chile. As hosts of the CBD COP, China, as well as other members of CCAMLR, can hopefully bring a wave of renewed environmental ambition to protecting Antarctica’s waters to this meeting.” said Claire Christian, Executive Director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.
ASOC urges governments meeting at the CBD to ensure leadership and vision in their final negotiations to ensure a strong new plan to protect the planet’s biodiversity, and for Antarctic Ocean protection to be top of mind following the CBD COP. This protection will help harness the global values that Antarctica and its ocean provide the rest of the planet, building resilience of this fragile wilderness to adapt to the accelerating impacts of the climate crisis.
