World Oceans Day: Joint Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius
On 8 June, we celebrate the World Oceans Day. Oceans are vital for life on Earth, playing a crucial role in climate regulation, providing more oxygen than all forests combined and being paramount in addressing pressing global challenges, such as food security, energy and fast-tracking green transition.
Ocean temperatures, however, have never been higher and marine life is disappearing at an unprecedented pace, putting the world at risk. Our oceans, functioning as our planet’s greatest carbon sink, cannot wait for the reversal of dramatic developments, and neither can we.
Since last year’s World Oceans Day, we have witnessed promising progress on ocean protection. On 19 June 2023, a historic Agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in the high seas, known as the BBNJ Agreement, was adopted. With the European Parliament’s vote on 24 April, the EU is one step closer to the Agreement’s ratification.
The task ahead is now to reach the number of sixty ratifications of the Agreement for it to enter into force and we can proceed to its effective implementation. Our objective is to make this happen by the June 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in France.
The EU is taking action. Ocean sustainability is a priority of the EU’s green diplomacy. At the 9th Our Ocean Conference held in Greece, earlier this year, the EU made 40 new commitments for a safe, secure, clean, healthy and sustainably managed ocean adding up to some € 3.5 billion from various EU funds, the highest EU contribution since the start of the Our Ocean Conferences a decade ago. Our engagement remains rooted on the principles of dialogue, partnership and solidarity with our partners around the globe.
Looking ahead, strengthening the nexus between oceans and climate change remains a priority for the EU. The EU also seeks to expand the scope of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean and advocates for an ambitious outcome of the negotiations on an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
Protecting our oceans is a shared responsibility and only the implementation of global solutions, such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the BBNJ Agreement, can contribute to this.
Climate change exacerbated marine heatwave
A new study has revealed that the North Atlantic marine heatwave of 2023 was exacerbated by climate change
By
The UK is blessed with an exceptionally varied and beautiful coastline, which means that from seaside piers to tiny rocky coves and the long wind-whipped stretches of sand, there’s a beach for every mood in the UK. However, as beautiful as our beaches are, when it comes to a beach holiday there’s a problem. As anyone who has splashed into the British seas will have noticed, the water, even in high summer, can be a little bracing. Except that is, for last summer. With sea temperatures on the more sheltered beaches being several degrees warmer than average it meant that bathing was a pleasure rather than merely a feat of endurance.
The reason for those added degrees was a very strong marine heatwave created, as was widely reported at the time, by strong high-pressure systems in the North Atlantic and over the UK. Now though, new research has shown that while high-pressure weather conditions were the main driver behind the unusually high sea temperatures, warming due to climate change exacerbated the situation.
Like hurricanes, marine heatwaves are categorised from 1-5 with 5 being an extreme marine heatwave. In June 2023 some coastal waters in northwest Europe experienced sea-surface temperatures of up to 5°C higher than normal, which meant that they were classed as a category 5 marine heatwave. This was followed by another marine heatwave in September 2023 and, according to the UK Met Office, we are currently experiencing a category 1 (+1-2°C) marine heatwave with pockets of category 2 (+2-3°C). Moving towards the Norwegian part of the North Sea, it is reaching category 3/4 (>+4°C) in areas.
The study, led by UK Met Office scientists and a consortium of British and Irish institutions, including Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), showed that the UK experienced its longest-ever category 2 marine heatwave (16 days), with temperatures around the British Isles reaching a 16°C peak in June 2023 instead of the typical 13.5°C.
The study showed that the marine heatwave developed quickly due to high-pressure weather conditions, including reduced levels of cloud cover, strong sunshine, weak winds and tropical air. Additionally, the high-pressure dominant over the North Atlantic made for minimal swell activity which resulted in little mixing of warmer surface waters with colder deep-sea waters. This allowed the sea surface water to warm unusually quickly.
The study also found that the influence of the warmer sea water led to warmer land temperatures than average, and heavier rainfall through stronger, warmer and more moist sea breezes.
The authors of the report say that although the study shows climate change was not the direct driver, the warming trend for sea-surface temperatures over the last two decades exacerbated the scale of the marine heatwave, making it reach category 2 instead of 1. Worryingly, the authors also suggest that such high sea surface temperatures will become commonplace by the middle of the century without strong mitigation to slow the rise of greenhouse gas emissions.
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