Other policies and activities
Other policies and activities
<IUCN's Measures to Resolve Marine Warming>
1) Limiting greenhouse gas emissions
There is an urgent need to achieve the mitigation targets set by the Paris Agreement on climate change and hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. This will help prevent the massive and irreversible impacts of growing temperatures on ocean ecosystems and their services.
2) Protecting marine and coastal ecosystems
Well-managed protected areas can help conserve and protect ecologically and biologically significant marine habitats. This will regulate human activities in these habitats and prevent environmental degradation.
3) Restoring marine and coastal ecosystems
Elements of ecosystems that have already experienced damage can be restored. This can include building artificial structures such as rock pools that act as surrogate habitats for organisms, or boosting the resilience of species to warmer temperatures through assisted breeding techniques.
4) Improving human adaptation
Governments can introduce policies to keep fisheries production within sustainable limits, for example by setting precautionary catch limits and eliminating subsidies to prevent overfishing. Coastal setback zones which prohibit all or certain types of development along the shoreline can minimise the damage from coastal flooding and erosion. New monitoring tools can be developed to forecast and control marine disease outbreaks.
5) Strengthening scientific research
Governments can increase investments in scientific research to measure and monitor ocean warming and its effects. This will provide more precise data on the scale, nature and impacts of ocean warming, making it possible to design and implement adequate and appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
<UN 10-Year Marine Science Campaign>
The United Nations has launched a campaign to protect the sea by designating 2021 to 2030 as "United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, 2021-2030." The United Nations Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is an international initiative to expand the world's understanding of the sea for 10 years from 2021 to 2030 and find practical solutions based on marine science. Specifically, for the sustainability of the sea, all UN member states and NGOs want to promote global marine exploration, joint research, and capacity building projects, and UNESCO IOC, which is leading the project, predicts that it will cost more than $1 billion over 10 years.
<Convention on Biological Diversity>
The Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1993 as an international treaty that identified biodiversity at six levels: ecosystems, species, and genes. At the 10th General Meeting of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention held in Nagoya, Japan in 2010, the Aichi Biodiversity Goals were adopted to preserve and manage more than 10% of the coastal marine area.
<Ramsar Convention>
The convention on wetlands of international importance especially as waterfowl habitation was adopted on 2 February 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, and came into effect in December 1975 to protect the waterfowl habitat internationally.
<UN Convention on the Law of the Sea>
It was an international agreement adopted in 1982 as a result of the Third United Nations Conference on Marine Law (UNCLOS-III, 1973-1982). 320 provisions stipulate the rights and responsibilities of the country to develop, use, and investigate the sea and its Busan resources, the preservation of the sea ecosystem, the development and transfer of marine-related technologies, and the mediation procedures for maritime disputes.
<UN Sustainable Development Goals>
In 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted the "Life Below Water" as its 14th goal and requires each country to establish and implement domestic follow-up plans to achieve this.