Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps he has taken with his international counterparts to create marine protected areas in the high seas in preparation for ratifying the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK will continue to be proactive in preparing for implementation and entry into force and will work with international partners and stakeholders to identify potential areas for High Seas Marine Protected Areas. The UK is also funding a project to develop a shortlist of potential area-based management tools that could be developed into future proposals once the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement comes into force.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential connection between global ocean protection and mitigating the effects of climate change.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that climate change and biodiversity loss, alongside other human pressures, are having a detrimental impact on ocean health. Ocean action can be part of our response to both challenges; protecting and restoring coastal and marine habitats can provide a wide array of benefits, including flood protection, improving biodiversity, carbon sequestration and supporting ecosystems to be more resilient to climate impacts.
The UK plays a leading role in advocating for nature and ocean to be embedded in global climate action. The annual UNFCCC Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue was established under our COP26 Presidency. At COP28, we worked with international partners to secure a negotiated decision for the first Global Stocktake which encouraged the strengthening of ocean-based climate action.
As Chair of the Global Ocean Alliance, the UK successfully led calls for ambitious and meaningful outcomes for the ocean from the Convention on Biological Diversity COP15. As agreed at that COP, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework includes commitments to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030, restore degraded ecosystems and to tackle the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification, with Parties noting the interlinkage between these targets.
The UK played a significant and proactive role in securing The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement which will mean much greater protection for the two-thirds of the global ocean that lies beyond national jurisdiction. The Agreement will play a key role supporting the delivery of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, including helping to achieve the target to effectively conserve and manage at least 30% of the ocean by 2030.
Financed from the UK aid budget, the £500 million Blue Planet Fund supports developing countries to reduce poverty, protect and sustainably manage their marine resources and address human-generated threats across four interlinked key themes, one of which is climate change.