Nations Promise Billions For Sustainable Oceans At Palau Conference
The conference highlighted the particular climate change challenges faced by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific.
Nations and philanthropic organizations pledged to redouble their efforts to conserve the world’s oceans this week at the seventh Our Ocean conference in Palau.
The conference spanned two days of speeches, panels and sessions about sustainable fisheries, Indigenous community-led conservation and other topics related to oceans.
Leaders and representatives of nonprofit groups made promises to better address climate change and related issues as advocates pressed for more urgent action.
On Wednesday in Palau, the European Union promised to back 44 ocean-related commitments worth more than $1 billion. The U.S. government announced over 100 commitments worth $2.7 billion, including 16 new sustainable fisheries initiatives worth at least $120 million and a new tool for assessing marine-protected areas.
鈥淲e are past negotiating for commitments. It鈥檚 time we act on those commitments that we have made,鈥 Palau President Surangel S. Whipps, Jr. said in his opening remarks.
The conference came five months after nations gathered in the United Kingdom for the United Nations climate change conference known as COP26. The conference resulted in a promise to reduce the use of coal, but critics have lamented how the promises made aren’t enough by at least 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Palau conference this week was another opportunity for world leaders to address issues like shipping industry emissions, marine pollution and rising seas.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Russia鈥檚 war on Ukraine underscores the importance of moving toward reliance on clean energy. Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot control the power of the wind and the sun,” Kerry said.
Europe is heavily dependent on Russia to provide gas, which has complicated Western efforts to impose sanctions on Moscow.
Kerry noted that this week’s conference in Palau was the first since 2014, and the first to be held in a small island nation. In previous years, the conference resulted in more than 1,400 individual commitments worth more than $90 billion and protections for over 5 million square miles of ocean.
鈥淲e gather here in the Pacific, the frontlines of the crisis both in our oceans and on our planet,鈥 Kerry said. 鈥淲e need the full-throated voice of the island states particularly because you speak with a particular moral imperative, with a particular capacity to be persuasive.鈥
Kerry said 20 countries are responsible for 80% of emissions on the planet and acknowledged the U.S. is the second-largest carbon emitter. He added the U.S. is working with the shipping industry to eliminate carbon emissions in that industry by 2050.
New Zealand announced a $3 million commitment to support the University of the South Pacific and University of Canterbury to produce a Pacific Ocean climate crisis assessment. Ireland announced a new $2.2 million euro research program on blue carbon storage and sequestration. Indonesia promised to expand its marine-protected areas.
Nongovernmental organizations also made pledges. The Green Climate Fund announced a funding agreement with Pegasus Capital Advisors worth $125 million of investments to support sustainable oceans. The fund also announced four new coral reef initiatives that would unlock another $120 million, including initiatives in Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
Many speakers acknowledged the role that Indigenous communities play in conservation and sustainability and spoke of the particular challenges faced by island nations facing rising sea levels and threats to their traditional fishing practices.
On Thursday in Palau, Keone Nakoa, representing the U.S. Department of the Interior, said the Biden administration values Indigenous knowledge in addressing climate change, and described Hawaii’s聽Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument as a premiere example of Indigenous co-stewardship of oceans.
The vast expanse is co-managed by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, not just state and federal agencies, and Nakoa noted the area is a space where Native Hawaiians may sail using traditional navigational methods learned from Micronesian navigator Mau Piailug.
Next year’s conference is scheduled to be held in Panama. Click of the conference聽 and learn more about the speakers.
Civil Beat鈥檚 coverage of climate change is supported by the Environmental Funders Group of the Hawaii Community Foundation, Marisla Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.
