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��ҹѰ�� joined ocean research institutes and charities from around the world by signing a declaration calling on governments to make long-term investment into marine research.

Partners of the Ocean Pavilion at this year’s COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan presented the Baku Ocean Declaration, calling on world leaders to make robust, long-term investments in ocean observations, research, and mapping to support efforts that will help meet key objectives of UN conventions on climate, biodiversity, and desertification. 

The initiative was led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

The declaration emphasises the crucial role that knowledge about the ocean plays in the well-being of people and communities, as well as the health of ecosystems worldwide.

��ҹѰ�� Director Prof Nick Owens, who signed the declaration on behalf of the Oban-based institute, said: “As a marine scientist I frequently say this isn’t planet earth, it’s planet ocean: and it really is. There are almost no areas of human life and society that do not depend in some way or another on the ocean – be it the air we breathe or the goods we use in our daily lives.

“The messages in the Baku Declaration are thus vital to all of humanity and I had no hesitation in supporting it as an important output from COP 29.”

The ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat and almost 30% of the excess carbon dioxide caused by human activity. As a result, the ocean’s continued health will determine the magnitude and rate of such factors as sea-level rise, increasing atmosphere and ocean temperatures, changes to the hydrological cycle, trends in ocean acidification and deoxygenation, ecosystem and biodiversity declines, and severe weather events.

Despite this, international investment in ocean observing systems has not kept pace with the need for information to guide climate adaptation efforts and other critical decisions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that the world must take coordinated action to avoid exceeding 1.5°C increase over pre-industrial temperatures—a key threshold that climate scientists say staying below will avoid the most severe effects of climate change.

At the same time, there is growing interest in the many opportunities that the ocean offers, including methods to mitigate rising greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, adapt to current and future climate change, and build a healthy blue economy that benefits humanity and protects critical ecosystems.

The COP29 Baku Ocean Declaration called on the parties of the UN Climate Conference and beyond to adopt measures to improve observations of critical ocean variables to preserve these benefits and includes key points for negotiators and attendees to consider in discussions during the two-week long conference.

Specific efforts spelled out in the COP29 Baku Ocean Declaration include: 

- Expand international collaboration to achieve progress in addressing the Earth’s climate, biodiversity, and freshwater crisis.

- Enhance public and private funding to scale-up and diversify support of long-term ocean observation, research, and innovation for decision-making.

- Build capacity and access, particularly in small-island developing states, low-lying coastal regions, and other under-represented people and places to further develop ocean data, knowledge, and innovation.

- Improve awareness of the ocean’s role in planetary systems and the need for its preservation as a vital step towards mobilizing decision-makers to prioritize ocean protection and restoration.