The Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration for One Resilient Common Future will strive to protect and restore the ocean in the face of severe climate change, pollution and impacts related to over-exploitation. Photo credit: The Commonwealth.
All 56 Commonwealth nations have agreed to protect and restore the ocean in the face of severe climate change, pollution and impacts related to over-exploitation.
Decided on at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, the Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration for One Resilient Common Future paves the way for robust, ambitious, innovative and transformative action for a Common Wealth of shared ocean prosperity, resilience and sustainability.
It will build on national and collective efforts to protect the ocean and use it sustainably.
Key aspects of the declaration include:
- Recognition of national maritime boundaries in the face of sea-level rise.
- Protection of at least 30 per cent of the ocean and restoring at least 30 per cent of degraded marine ecosystems by 2030.
- Urgent finalisation of the Global Plastics Treaty.
- Ratification of the high-seas biodiversity Agreement on Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (known as the BBNJ Agreement).
- Development and implementation of coastal climate adaption plans and strategies, including vulnerability assessments and nature-based solutions, such as blue carbon.
- Increased support for a sustainable blue economy with sustainable ocean plans, recognising the need for 100 percent management of national waters.
- Reduction of emissions from global maritime shipping.
- Enhanced marine renewable energy targets to meet the global climate goal of tripling renewable energy capacity, agreed as part of the UNFCCC Global Stocktake in Dubai last year.
Prime Minister of Samoa Hon. Fiame Naomi Mata’afa welcomes the agreement and says it is fitting the first ocean declaration is adopted in the Blue Pacific continent given climate change has been recognised as the single greatest threat to the security and well-being of its people.
“The ocean makes up 96 percent of our region; and where we are amongst the first to most immediately suffer the impacts of climate change,” the Prime Minister says.
“The Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration for One Resilient Common Future must be a line in the sand from which the world collectively transforms ocean exploitation into protection and sustainable stewardship.
“We look forward to moving from words to action.”
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Secretary-General Rt Hon. Patricia Scotland KC, notes the incredible progress made with the Blue Charter which underpins the declaration and helps member states rise to today’s climate challenges and seize tomorrow’s opportunities.
“I am confident this declaration will have a profound and durable impact on the well-being of our people, ocean and planet,” she adds.
“This document now sets the standard for forthcoming international meetings, generating momentum for ocean protection as we head towards COP29 in Azerbaijan in November, and next year’s UN Ocean Conference.
“We are immensely proud of this achievement and will leave no one behind as we advocate for stronger ocean protection.”
The Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration for One Resilient Common Future is the culmination of many years of visionary and collective action.
In 2018, Commonwealth leaders agreed to work together towards a sustainable ocean through the adoption of the Commonwealth Blue Charter.
Since then, 17 champion countries have led 10 Action Groups covering marine protection, sustainable blue economies, climate change and ocean pollution.
These action groups will now play a pivotal role in implementing the declaration.
At the 2022 CHOGM in Rwanda, governments called for a Commonwealth Ocean Declaration, and in April 2024, countries agreed on the priorities for the Ocean Declaration at the first-ever Commonwealth Ocean Ministers Meeting in Cyprus.
The Commonwealth represents a third of the world’s population, and 49 of its 56 countries have a coastline.
Crucially, 25 Commonwealth nations are Small Island Developing States (SIDS), increasingly impacted by climate change, sea level rise, rising temperatures and increasing ocean acidity – impacting sea life, ecosystems and the communities that depend upon them.
On average 96 percent of Pacific Island Countries are ocean, four percent land.
In Kiribati, for example, atolls and islands occupy 811 square kilometres, lying within an ocean domain of 3.5 million square kilometres – about the width of the continental USA – which mean that it has 4,000 times more ocean than land.
Pacific fishing and tourism provide US$3.3 billion to the national economies of Pacific countries and territories.
