COMMITMENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS
UN DECADE OF OCEAN SCIENCE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The OA Alliance is an implementing partner of two UN Decade endorsed programs: “Understanding and Addressing Ocean Acidification and Changing Ocean Conditions Through the Development of OA Action Plans,” project ID 8 and “Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability (OARS),” project ID 219.
Partners across the OARS UN Decade Program aim to expand OA monitoring and research that help decision-makers better understand climate impacts to marine resources and explore local actions that increase resilience.
In our role as co-champion of OARS outcome #2, “Identifying OA Data and Evidence for OA Mitigation and Adaptation” the OA Alliance facilitated the drafting and publication of white paper at IOC-UNESCO as part of setting the guiding foundation for the OARS UN Decade program.
OARS Outcome #2 is helping to prioritize monitoring, research, and information for tangible outcomes by considering the information and tools needed for specific decisions and actions.
Targeted information can help policymakers, resource managers, stakeholders, and communities better understand impacts of OA on marine resources, and enable them to identify the most appropriate mitigation or adaptation actions to minimize and address the effect of OA.
Implementing actions to minimize and address the effect of OA requires considerations of: (1) time, space, and cost constraints; (2) alignment with existing policy or management goals; and (3) assessment of broader environmental and socio-economic risks and benefits.
To encourage a diversity of OA actions across different scales, OARS Outcome #2 has outlined 6 key decision-making categories. These categories provide a framework for identifying targeted or increased OA information needs for mitigation and adaptation actions.
UN OCEAN CONFERENCE 2022
The 2022 UN Ocean Conference, co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal, took place June 27-July 1 in Lisbon, Portugal. The success of the Conference proved that while the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the delay of many pivotal ocean and climate convenings and benchmarks —the global commitment to action and progress is not diminished.
The OA Alliance showed up in a big way, doing our part to drive climate action and increase understanding and implementation of UN SDG 14.3, "to minimize and address ocean acidification.” We did this by announcing new members, convening a meeting about climate financing for ocean adaptation, hosting an official SDG 14.3 side event at Altice Arena and unveiling voluntary commitments to OA action taking made by membership!
THE OA ALLIANCE’S OFFICIAL SIDE EVENT AT UNOC 2022: TAKING ACTION TO ADDRESS OCEAN ACIDIFICATION & IMPLEMENT SDG 14.3
Our official OA side event, held on June 29 inside the Altice Arena, highlighted Voluntary Commitments made by governments and civil society for advancing OA policy, financing, literacy, science and innovation for management.
Speakers demonstrated that increased local and regional knowledge of risks, impacts and coastal community priorities is helping to inform management and response strategies.
This is in parallel to global efforts that are moving forward to provide society with the evidence needed to sustainably identify, monitor, mitigate and adapt to ocean acidification at relevant scales.
The event helped leverage national and subnational actors across the UN Decade of Ocean Science endorsed programme, OA Research for Sustainability (OARS) of which the OA Alliance is a co-champion partner.
The event was co-hosted by: OA Alliance, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Commonwealth Blue Charter, IOC- UNESCO; IAEA Ocean Acidification International Coordination Center, the Global Ocean Acidification- Observing Network, the University of Washington and The Ocean Foundation.
