SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT: BLUE ECONOMY
New tools
One of the potential tools to support
a sustainable blue economy is marine
spatial planning (MSP). This provides a
more strategic approach to how marine
spaces and resources are used by different
activities. It also recognises marine space
isn’t just the surface – it’s the water body,
the seabed and, sometimes, it’s below the
seabed. “It could also be the air above the
sea,” Professor Fletcher explains.
A sustainable blue economy has financial
value, but it also has social and cultural
capital. Portsmouth itself offers a wealth of
examples – from the value of locally caught
fish to the restaurant trade to the health
benefits of living by the sea, through to
the national security asset of the UK’s
key naval port.
“And you can’t discount the value of
people simply being able to stroll along the
beach on a sunny day,” Professor
Fletcher says.
His research is about enabling these
eclectic values to be understood and
assembled into a holistic decision-making
system.
At this point of our voyage, we’re still
wading in the shallows. The next challenge
is to step into the deep, dark cold.
There are areas of the ocean that are
not owned, managed or controlled by any
country. Beyond the 200 nautical mile zones
that fall under national jurisdictions are the
high seas, which for Professor Fletcher are
the “last great wilderness on Earth”.
This is a vast, 3D space, rich in biodiversity,
and he says the big questions to answer are
how to conserve and sustainably use the deep
ocean’s resources.
Management imperative
Because of the deep sea’s status as a
marine no-man’s land, Professor Fletcher
says there is global concern that these areas
are already being used and abused in a way
that is creating an unsustainable future for
the ocean. “The UN is increasingly worried
about the biodiversity in areas beyond
national jurisdiction,” he says.
Professor Fletcher’s work is contributing
to an ongoing UN legal process to
supplement the Law of the Sea to
better protect the deep ocean. He is
contributing to a wholescale redesign of
the infrastructure required to manage areas
that lie beyond national jurisdiction.
“Right now, we can identify areas
that are important ecologically, but we
can’t legally designate or protect these
areas. There’s no way to protect against
overexploitation, pollution, mining, or any
other activities. So we are designing a
whole new governance system.”
If a new, legally binding international
instrument is agreed, it will represent a step
change in the way the ocean is conserved.
For many observers it is a big ‘if’, but
Professor Fletcher believes the signs are
promising, and more countries are coming
to some consensus around what should be
in this instrument.
Ocean literacy
As a scientist, an adviser to the UN and a
science communicator, Professor Fletcher
says that if you want people to listen and
act, an effort has to be made to help them
to understand and – in his words – acquire
“ocean literacy”.
“Ocean literacy means working with
individuals or groups to achieve changes
that will deliver sustainability policies …
such as reducing the amount of single-use
plastic, encouraging different waste disposal
practices, or making different food choices,”
he says.
This is where science is crucial.
“Research helps us to understand the
implications of people’s lifestyle choices on
ocean resources, what we do with waste
being one example. There must be few
people in Britain today who are not aware
of the threat single-use plastic poses to our
ocean. Ocean literacy seeks to turn this
awareness into real change.”
390
MILLION TONNES
In 2012 carbon emissions from plastic
production and after use
were 390 million tonnes of CO 2
.
SOURCE: ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION
15%
Greenhouse gas emissions by the plastics sector
will account for 15% of the available global carbon
budget by 2050 (up from 1% today) if we are to
keep global warming below 2 degrees by 2100.
SOURCE: ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION
ISSUE 1 / 2020
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