Countries commit to completely sustainable management of their ocean waters by 2025

The 14 countries of High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy made the commitment for their waters and called on all other coastal nations to pledge the same goal by 2030.

News ID: 80529

Date: 02 December 2020 - 13:22

Canada, Japan, Norway and 11 other countries that account for almost 40% of the world's coastline and 30% of the world's Exclusive Economic Zones have pledged to develop individual sustainable management plans targeting sustainable use of the ocean and economic growth.

FOURTEEN nations that account for almost 30% of the world’s Exclusive Economic Zones have committed to completely sustainable management of the ocean waters under their jurisdiction by 2025.

The new landmark pledge by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, the inter-governmental initiative known as the Ocean Panel, will be implemented through individual sustainable management plans that each of the 14 member governments will need to develop over the coming years.

These plans will lay out the policies and mechanisms that the countries will use facilitate sustainable use of the ocean coupled with sustainable growth of the ocean economy.

The Ocean Panel includes Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Japan and Norway and its 14 member governments account for almost 40% of the world’s coastlines and 30% of EEZs.

The group also urged leaders of all other coastal and ocean states to commit to the same 100% sustainable management goal, so that all EEZs are sustainably managed by 2030.

“For too long, we have perceived a false choice between ocean protection and production. No longer. We understand the opportunities of action and the risks of inaction, and we know the solutions. Building a sustainable ocean economy is one of the greatest opportunities of our time,” Norway prime minister and Ocean Panel co-chair Erna Solberg said in a statement.

The Ocean Panel’s vision is based on action in the five distinct fields of ocean wealth, ocean health, ocean equity, ocean knowledge and ocean finance.

In this context, the Ocean Panel’s 2030 target for ocean transport is that “shipping investments have effectively accelerated the shift towards zero-emission and low-impact marine vessels”.

To get there, the Ocean Panel proposes a number of potential tools, including early national targets and strategies to support vessel decarbonisation, the stimulation of development and adoption of technologies for production and storage of zero-emission fuels and the incentivisation of low carbon ports.

It also suggests promoting “the transition of the global fleet to modern modes of propulsion and renewable fuels, including through strengthened regulations within the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and support technical cooperation for international capacity building”.