One Earth, One Ocean

8th June 2015 - 3238 days ago

José María Figueres, Co-Chair of the Global Ocean Commission and his sister Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change discuss the crisis both the ocean and the atmosphere are currently facing and what needs to be addressed for the future of the planet.

NEW YORK – The ocean and the atmosphere are linked in ways that are only just beginning to be fully understood. Like siblings, the sky above us and the waters around us share many characteristics – most notably these days a need to be protected. We are siblings working on a shared agenda to defend both – an agenda that will define the future for many millions of brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, friends, and neighbors, as well as life-forms on the land and in the seas, now and for generations to come.

Fortunately, governments around the world are beginning to understand the challenge, and are expected to deliver – or at least make progress toward – two important agreements this year: a new global treaty to protect marine life in international waters, and a climate-change accord to safeguard the atmosphere.

Together with a suite of Sustainable Development Goals, these agreements will serve as crucial road signs indicating the path to be followed by the world’s national economies over the next 15 years and beyond.

The planned accords come amid extraordinary efforts by countries, cities, companies, and citizens to protect the climate and the ocean. Investments in renewable energy are running at well over $250 billion a year, and many countries are spending as much on green forms of energy production as they do on fossil fuels. Our native Costa Rica, for example, now gets 80% of its energy from renewable sources. In China, renewables are expanding rapidly, and coal consumption fell by 2.9% year on year in 2014. Read More.

Courtesy of Project Syndicate