Ocean experts at the Paris
climate talks are expressing mixed reaction to the draft outcome text published
Wednesday, urging governments to keep working to ensure that the role of the
ocean in climate change mitigation and adaptation is robustly reflected.
The French government released a
‘clean’ draft of the final agreement at 1500hrs CET which sees the
original 48 page document slimmed down to 29 pages, with many brackets
remaining where wording is not nailed down.
The text mentions the ocean for the first time in the preamble to the Agreement;
the preamble is not legally binding. Additional
paragraphs refer to the need to enhance greenhouse gas (GHG) sinks to help
absorb CO2 emissions, and to foster ecosystem integrity, wording which can be
taken to refer to coastal and ocean ecosystems as well as land-based ones.
A broad coalition of ocean campaigners
from the fields of science, policy and finance have been prominent at this
CoP calling for greater profile of ocean issues within climate commitments.
Climate
finance expert Torsten Thiele, of the Global Ocean Trust, said “I see this
draft as a case of “the glass is half full”.
We got ocean in the substance and also "symbolically" in the
preamble of the draft. This is good news but we need to encourage the
negotiators to continue to work to get to an ambitious agreement without the
brackets.”
In order to limit
further damage to the ocean in terms of acidification and warming from climate
change and in terms of protecting the most vulnerable people, the Agreement
must commit to a time-limited target of at least 1.5 degrees. Arni Finnsson of
Iceland Nature Conservation Association said: “A 1.5 degree goal is our best
shot at stopping ocean acidification, preserving important habitats such as
coral reefs and helping to protect the most vulnerable Island communities.”
