Sweden joins UK campaign of ocean protection

#Sweden; #UK; #GlobalOceanAlliance; #MarineProtectionTarget; #BiologicalDiversity

Sweden, Feb 23 (Canadian-Media): United Kingdom (U.K.)'s Global Ocean Alliance has been joined by Sweden to help drive urgent action to safeguard the ocean and protect its precious wildlife, media reports said.

World's marine environments including marine life and habitats are being damaged and threatened by rising sea temperatures, deoxygenation, acidification, habitat loss, overfishing and pollution.

The UK-led international coalition aims to tackle these impacts and safeguard at least 30 percent of the global ocean in Global Ocean Alliance ​ by 2030.

The newest member of the Alliance, Sweden was officially welcomed by the International Environment Minister, Zac Goldsmith, during a keynote speech at WWF’s ‘Blue Road to Glasgow’ ocean conference on Feb 19.

Global Ocean Alliance. Image credit: grrenpeace,org

He said that UK aims to make our ocean more resilient through this global alliance and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In the 2020 Year of Climate Action, the UK is taking a world-leading approach to marine conservation.

UK is the first country to commit to net-zero emissions by 2050, the UK led the call for a global 30 per cent ocean protection target at the 2018 United Nations General Assembly.

These initiatives are backed by many countries  as part of a nature-based solutions to improve ocean resilience.

​With 357 Marine Protected Areas, the UK is at the forefront of marine protection. 40 percent of English waters are designated as marine protection areas,  setting an example for the rest of the world to follow.

An announcement was made by UK Prime Minister at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019 regarding a Global Ocean Alliance of countries in initial support of the 30by30 target.

Countries that have signed up so far include: Belgium, Belize, Costa Rica, Finland, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Palau, Portugal, Seychelles, Sweden and Vanuatu.

All the countries are invited this year by the UK Government to sign up with the aim that 30by30 marine protection target will be agreed as part of a new global biodiversity framework at the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of Parties in October 2020.