TAG: GS 3: ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT
THE CONTEXT: The oceans play a key role in regulating climate. Yet the world’s understanding is still insufficient to design solutions for multiple ocean crises and validate new technologies that aim to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to the UNESCO State of Ocean Report.
EXPLANATION:
Key Findings from the UNESCO State of Ocean Report 2024
- Ocean Warming and Its Impacts
- The upper 2,000 metres (m) of oceans warmed at a rate of 0.32 ± 0.03 watt per square metre (W/m2) from 1960 through 2023.
- The rate of ocean warming has doubled to 0.66 ± 0.10 W/m2 in the past two decades.
- Increased ocean heat content (OHC) prevents ocean layers from mixing, leading to deoxygenation, which can have long-term negative impacts on coastal and marine ecosystems.
- It is still unclear whether deoxygenation is accelerating in response to increased OHC.
- Ocean Acidification
- The open ocean has experienced a continuous decline in pH, with an average global surface ocean pH decline of 0.017-0.027 pH units per decade since the late 1980s.
- The current coverage of pH monitoring stations (638 in 2024) is inadequate, with time series not long enough to determine trends and data gaps in all areas.
- Coastal waters can turn acidic due to natural processes and human activities, and longer-term data sets are needed to determine the time of emergence of ocean acidification trends.
- Sea Level Rise
- The global mean sea level from 1993 to 2023 increased at a rate of 3.4 +/-0.3 mm/yr.
- Improving space-based and in situ observing systems for monitoring sea level rise at global, regional, and coastal scales is necessary.
Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) Technologies
- Since 2020, there has been a surge of interest in mCDR using wide-ranging methods, which may pose many technical, environmental, political, legal, and regulatory challenges.
- There are still many unknowns regarding the potential of using mCDR to enhance the ocean carbon sink and its interactions with the ocean carbon cycle.
Coastal Blue Carbon Habitats
- There is an increased interest in restoring or expanding coastal blue carbon habitats such as mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and tidal saltmarshes to increase carbon sequestration.
- Questions remain on the effectiveness of these efforts.
UNESCO:
- The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was born on 16 November 1945.
- UNESCO has 195 Members and 8 Associate Members and is governed by the General Conference and the Executive Board.
- The Secretariat, headed by the Director-General, implements the decisions of these two bodies. The Organization has more than 50 field offices around the world.
- Its headquarters are located in Paris.
- UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.
- UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values.
- It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and activities.