5 Things to Know About Climate Change and the Ocean

For this year’s World Ocean Day we collaborated with the UN Foundation’s comms team to co-create a blog post around the climate-ocean nexus. The OA Alliance’s Director, Jessie Turner, and Kerrlene Wills, Director for Ocean and Climate at UNF; highlight the important link between climate change and the ocean:

When it comes to climate action, protecting the planet’s biggest ecosystem remains overlooked and underfunded.

In response, the UN is renewing ambition to accelerate climate-ocean action — including through the Ocean Decade and Sustainable Development Goals — before it’s too late.

Hear from Kerrlene Wills, Director for Ocean and Climate and Jessie Turner, Director for the International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification at the UN Foundation about the importance of our ocean and coasts for climate, biodiversity, and people.

“We know exactly what the consequences of our inaction are, and we know exactly the types of actions we need to be taking,” Turner says. “It’s really a matter of political and social will.”

She says governments have to step up and take ownership of the regulation and reform needed to protect the ocean, which will require citizens to step up, too.