Answers to some of the biggest questions being faced by countries challenged with advancing the Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change rest within the ocean sector, a new policy brief from the Blue Marine Foundation has outlined.

Working in collaboration with Ocean & Climate Platform and an assortment of nine other ocean-based NGOs and conservation groups (including Ocean Conservancy and the Pew Charitable Trusts), the Foundation has presented its position in the newly published policy brief, ‘Blue Thread: Aligning National Climate and Biodiversity Strategies.’

Landing ahead of COP16 to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia next week and one month before COP29 (the UN’s convention on climate change), the report has been launched amid rising expectations for gathering countries to submit new and more ambitious strategies to fight biodiversity loss and climate change.

But until now, both issues have largely been approached as two separate entities and “despite the strong potential for alignment and cooperation” that could provide both solutions and a reduction of the current emissions gap by as much as 35%, such conventions have been criticised for “lacking the synergy to enhance their positive impacts”. 

According to the Blue Marine Foundation, this has – so far – only acted to “undermine effective action on the ground” at a time in which “we face the sixth mass extinction and ever-growing impacts of climate change.”

The need for more ambitious and more urgent action has never been stronger. Last week, the Zoological Society London and WWF published its 2024 Living Planet Index Report in which it was revealed that global average wildlife populations have declined a staggering 73% over the course of the last 50 years. At the same time, impacts of human activity and the effects of climate change are now bringing habitats once known for their richness in biodiversity – those like the Amazon rainforest, polar ice caps, and coral reef ecosystems – perilously close to a tipping point from which there will be small chance of return. 

While some initial progress has been made in addressing the biodiversity and climate crises since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022, the Blue Marine Foundation (and its collaborating actors) believe “there is now a need to move beyond ad hoc cooperation.”

“Aligning national biodiversity and climate strategies will be crucial in this journey,” said the Blue Marine Foundation within the pages of its Blue Threads policy brief. “Despite their overlapping and complementary nature, they are currently addressed as separate policy processes and institutional responsibilities at the national level.

“And, given the ocean’s pivotal role in the intricate relationship between climate and biodiversity, ocean-based solutions have the potential to advance both the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement.”

Ocean-based solutions, according to the brief, have the potential to connect across the Biodiversity and Climate Conventions. In fact, the Ocean Panel advocates that through a full implementation of the solutions its brief presents, the current 1.5-degrees-celsius 2050 emissions gap could be reduced by as much as 35%.

These ocean-based solutions are pinned upon a framework of five Ocean Breakthroughs which operate across key marine sectors: conservation, renewable energy, shipping, aquatic food systems, and coastal tourism. Each Breakthrough provides a system of positive turning points through which ocean sectors can ensure “a net zero, resilient, and healthy planet by 2050.”

As an example, the Blue Marine Foundation spotlights current efforts in Guyana to align national mangrove conservation and restoration with its national Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030 policy. Based on public consultations with national stakeholders, including indigenous peoples and forest-based communities, Guyana’s now revised NDC includes new, conditional targets to expand mangrove restoration and conservation along the vulnerable coastline for mitigation and adaptation, while developing programmes that expand biodiversity conservation and area-based protection.

“Successfully addressing the interconnected climate and biodiversity crisis undoubtedly depends on the health of the ocean,” said the Blue Marine Foundation in its report. “At the crossroads of all challenges facing humanity today, the ocean can no longer be overlooked. 

“This report has outlined the numerous, but not exhaustive, opportunities that can already be leveraged to strengthen ocean-based solutions in national strategies. However, it’s crucial that a formal mandate for collaboration is established and a common, long-term strategy between the Climate and Biodiversity Conventions developed for greater policy coherence.”

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