At COP26, world leaders – including the UK and the EU – must agree on actions to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. This action must include drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions AND action to deliver a healthy and resilient ocean.
We need fisheries – in the EU, UK and internationally – to transition from destructive fishing- and overfishing, which exacerbates CO2 emissions and undermine ocean health, and instead move to low-impact, low-carbon fishing that can restore ocean health and its capacity to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The ocean must be fully integrated into the climate process. The ocean regulates our climate and buffers us from the full force of climate change by absorbing over 90% of our excess heat and over a third of our CO2 emissions. By making ocean action a core part of climate action, we can help it help us.
This means we need to start counting the contribution that fish, marine life and marine habitats make to storing carbon – “blue carbon” – as well as the full carbon emissions from the fishing industry.
TAKE ACTION TODAY
- Take a photo of yourself with the poster “Save the Ocean to Save the Climate” and post it to twitter or Instagram with #oceanclimateaction and tag your favourite politician. The most creative photo will win a free Our Fish t-shirt!
- Sign up to get emails and take ocean climate action with us > https://save.our.fish/
- Buy a t-shirt or a hoodie with this beautiful artwork > https://ourfish.teemill.com/
- Come to our Blue Carbon Breakfast Briefing on Tuesday 9th November at Ottoman Coffee House. If you didn’t make it, you can watch the video here.
- Read this article by three scientists on why Fish and the Ocean Play A Crucial Role In Regulating Our Climate and Should Not Be Consigned to COP26 Sidelines
Needs more information? Contact info@our.fish