Helping to Build the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue

March 26, 2020

The 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place in Madrid, Spain December 2-13, 2019.    The final COP25 decision, Chile Madrid Time for Action, opened up a dialogue on the ocean and climate change, a major step forward in elevating and integrating ocean across the UNFCCC.

The OA Alliance submission to the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue: 

(1) Calls for increasing urgency to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the number one cause of ocean acidification.

(2) Provides recommendations for how ocean acidification should be accounted for within Party Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and across other climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.  This includes specific guidance to:

• Increase Mitigation Through Nature Based Solutions and by Reducing Land-Based Contributions.

• Increase Knowledge About the Impacts of Ocean Acidification at the Local and Regional Level.

• Improve Adaptation and Resiliency.

(3) Reaffirms commitments to the Platform for Science-Based Ocean Solutions (PSBOS) as launched by the COP25 Presidency and calls for an annual Expert Ocean Dialogue or Ocean Work Programme at COP26.