Registration of contributions to the work on capacity-building under IPBES: Submission #41

Brief description of contribution This side event at the UN Climate Change meeting COP26 showcased the Nature-Climate-People nexus and how tales from these ocean partners underline the importance of the ocean and its biodiversity to societies across the world and the urgency and ambition required to limiting warming to 1.5 °C, enhance NDCs to help achieve Net Zero with no overshoot and make ocean ecosystems part of the solution.

The ocean is undergoing rapid change due to increasing CO2 emissions resulting in serious risks to its biodiversity and ecosystems, and global society. This will continue unless unprecedented action is taken. Panelists summarized the findings of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and IPBES assessments and new societal and scientific initiatives for sustaining this unique habitat and Earth’s essential life support system.

The event aimed to inspire more Parties and non-Parties to enable future ocean-related climate and biodiversity action within their NDCs, to accelerate multi-stakeholder collaboration, to contribute to objectives of achieving Net Zero in a sustainable way and making (ocean) nature part of the solution, ensuring all hands on deck for “the NDCs we want”.

Moderator: Carol Turley OBE, Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Panel: Sir Robert Watson, Former chair of the IPBES and lead author of UN report 'Making Peace with Nature'; Hans Otto Pörtner, Co-chair IPCC WGII & Alfred Wegener Institute; Dalee Sambo Dorough, International Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council; Martin Sommerkorn, WWF Arctic Programme & IPCC; and Steve Widdicombe, Director of Science Plymouth Marine Laboratory & Co-Chair Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network.