UNESCO urged action on the challenging scenario, addressed at length in its 2024 State of the Ocean report, which was released on Monday with input from around 100 scientists from 30 countries and support from Iceland.
The report mulled data that the organization considers worrying on water warming, sea level rise, pollution, acidification, deoxygenation, blue carbon and biodiversity loss.
In that regard, UNESCO’s Director General Audrey Azoulay stressed the growing consequences of climate change on the oceans.
All the alarm bells are ringing, in addition to implementing the Paris Agreement against climate change in 2015, we call on our Member States to invest in the restoration of marine forests and better regulate marine protected areas, which are important reservoirs of biodiversity, the official underscored.
According to the UNESCO report, the rate of ocean warming has doubled in the last 20 years.
Despite the Paris Agreement, with which the international community agreed on working to keep temperature increases below two degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, temperatures in the oceans have already risen by 1.45 degrees Celsius, with points identified where they exceed two degrees Celsius.
Sea levels have also doubled in the last three decades, by a total of nine centimeters.
Another issue UNESCO warns about in its report is the loss of oxygen, which ‘is suffocating coastal species.’
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