Ocean

This technical note aims to provide an analysis of measures in the NDCs of SIDS which target the oceans, to gain a better understanding of the level of ambition of these countries and their strategies to sustainably develop ocean economies and conserve the ocean and marine ecosystems. Increasing knowledge of ocean measures used in the NDCs of SIDS will be fundamental as they prepare to submit their updated NDCs to the thirtieth Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2025. This note provides a detailed analysis of the most recent NDCs submitted by 39 SIDS in terms of oceans measures listed, approaches used, level of conditionality and their relationship to trade. It reveals that SIDS have placed particular attention on adapting to the immediate effects of climate change and building long-term resilience through adaptive responses. In fact, adaptation measures represented 77 per cent of total ocean measures, while mitigation measures accounted for the remaining 23 per cent. The low share of mitigation measures can be explained by the fact that SIDS contribute less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) combined emissions but disproportionately suffer from the damaging impacts of climate change, with some of these countries potentially becoming uninhabitable in the future. Only 3 per cent of ocean measures (or 19 measures) were explicitly labelled by countries as advancing loss and damage measures.

This publication, including annex 2 and annex 3, provides an overview of marine geospatial information management. It addresses important elements for well-structured and integrated marine geospatial information management, including with regard to its infrastructure and systems and population with reliable, timely and quality marine geospatial data that is standardized, interoperable, integrated, and available and accessible for cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary research, as well as for policy development, decision-making and strategic actions. The publication further discusses the important role of marine geospatial information management in improving our understanding of challenges related to the sustainable future of the ocean and the planet and developing effective risk mitigation strategies.

This study aims to enhance our comprehension of the seaweed sector as a tripartite vector for economic growth, environmental sustainability, and women’s economic empowerment. It builds upon the outcomes of the 4th United Nations Oceans Forum (UNOF), the 2023 Trade and Environment Review (TER), and expert interviews to present the interlinkages of the seaweed sector with food and nutrition, environmental and climate goals. The study adopts a gender lens, paying attention to women’s participation throughout the seaweed value chain. Seaweed’s growing popularity offers potential to increase economic income, food security, preserve marine biodiversity, and empower women along the value chains. Seaweed farming and processing demonstrate how development, climate, and nature can work together to generate value that uplifts coastal communities, including women and Indigenous Peoples. Seaweed has multiple uses including for food, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, aquatic animal, or livestock feed, biofertilizer, textiles, and biofuels. It can also be used for producing fully biodegradable and compostable biomass for non-plastics substitute and plastic alternatives.

This seminal report explores critical components of the global climate between 2011 and 2020. Taking a longer-term perspective than annual reports, the Decadal Report transcends interannual variability, highlighting, for example, how each decade since the 1990s has been warmer than the previous one. It shows without a doubt that greenhouse gas concentrations have increased in the atmosphere, thereby contributing to record levels of warming of the land and ocean, the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, and ocean acidification. As emissions rise and the climate changes, extreme weather and climate events are worsening. The decadal approach is unique in that it allows time for the scientific community to analyse the mechanisms behind extreme conditions and their likelihood of occurring in the pre-industrial era. For the very first time, this report demonstrates concrete connections between extreme events and development. Working in interdisciplinary collaboration with United Nations agencies and national statistics offices, select case studies demonstrate how extreme events across the decade have impeded progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the world continues to be off-track in reaching the SDGs, continued collaboration in addressing data challenges and socio-economic impact analyses is of ever-increasing importance.