Published

1 year ago

December 24, 2024

Alice Rush

In December 2019, Greenpeace International released 30×30 In Hot Water: The climate crisis and the urgent need for ocean protection. This makes the scientific case for creating a network of marine sanctuaries covering at least 30% of the world’s ocean, both to increase marine life’s resilience to climate change and to help mitigate its effect by protecting natural blue carbon stores.

Since In Hot Water was released, new research has shown a possible weakening of the ocean’s ability to sequester and store carbon, while climate impacts on the ocean and coastal communities have worsened.

In the meantime, governments have been dragging their feet on measures to effectively protect the ocean. To this day, less than 1% of the high seas – the largest habitat on Earth, comprising 64% of the world’s ocean – is fully or highly protected from human activities. While marine protected areas (MPAs) can be a powerful tool to help restore biodiversity and provide climate benefits, they will only succeed if they are well designed and properly enforced. A recent study of the world’s largest 100 MPAs, representing close to 90% of reported global MPA coverage, revealed that 25% of the assessed MPA coverage is not implemented, and that 33% is incompatible with conservation objectives. There are two factors underlying this: the lack of regulations or management, and the insufficient level of protection in some MPAs where destructive activities are still allowed to take place.

However, the picture isn’t entirely bleak. Political momentum for ocean protection has been growing and some major milestones have been reached in the last couple of years, triggering a wave of hope.

In December 2022, 196 members participating in the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada, agreed on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This included Target 3, also called “30×30”, committing to the protection of at least 30% of land and sea by 2030. While governments need to ensure the necessary level of funding and ambition to reach this target, they must also define networks of fully or highly protected MPAs to implement the target by the 2030 deadline.

In March 2023, after decades of negotiations, the UN agreed on a new Global Ocean Treaty, officially known as the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). Upon entering into force, it will be the first legally binding treaty targeted specifically at conserving marine life within the high seas, and a powerful tool that governments can use to help deliver the 30×30 target by creating vast ocean sanctuaries free from destructive human activities on the high seas.

The International Tribunal for Law of the Sea Advisory Opinion recognises that the Global Ocean Treaty provides tools for governments to fulfil their duty to address the interconnected crises of climate and ocean, which continue to worsen every day. With the 2030 deadline fast approaching, governments must tackle the climate crisis as a matter of utmost urgency. They need to set ambitious emission-reduction targets, transition to renewable energy, and ensure compliance with international climate agreements like the Paris Agreement to effectively tackle climate change. They must protect and restore natural stores of carbon in the ocean and the ecosystem process that maintains them. They must also start working on MPA proposals to be presented at the first BBNJ Conference of the Parties, or Ocean COP, and listen to over a million people around the world who are calling on them to urgently ratify the Global Ocean Treaty.

Key facts about the climate crisis and the urgent need for ocean protection

The ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat that greenhouse gases have trapped in the Earth’s system.
Warming ocean waters mean the ocean is 1–2% less oxygenated than in the 1970s, and marine species are being driven away from the equator towards higher, cooler latitudes.
Sea ice is retreating in polar regions. The Arctic sea ice minimum extent in 2024 was the seventh-lowest on satellite record, and the 18 lowest annual minima have all occurred in the last 18 years. Antarctic sea ice has recently also seen dramatic falls. This reduction in sea ice coverage has triggered a negative feedback loop of more rapid ocean warming.
Continued decline in sea ice loss means habitat loss for ice-dependent species, including iconic species like emperor penguins. Under current emissions projections, it is anticipated that by the end of the century nearly all emperor penguin colonies may decline by more than 90%.
Coral reefs are the foundation of many marine ecosystems throughout the tropics, but climate change and ocean acidification are putting their health at risk. During the latest global bleaching event, by July 2024, 73% of the world’s corals had been exposed to enough heat to begin the bleaching that could eventually cause their death.
Climate change is having devastating impacts on coastal human populations through sea level rise, more intense storms, and loss of fishing grounds and tourism opportunities. Low-income, marginalised and Indigenous groups are bearing the brunt of these impacts.
The ocean’s ability to passively absorb carbon dioxide (which has led to ocean acidification) appears to be being reduced. The deep ocean
is the largest carbon sink on Earth, but a recent study suggests that the rate at which the ocean is absorbing carbon dioxide cannot keep pace with emissions.
The biological pump which captures organic carbon is disrupted by industrial overfishing, while bottom-towed fishing activities disturb and release seabed carbon stores.
Healthy, diverse ecosystems build ocean resilience to climate impacts. Marine protected areas (MPAs) promote ocean health – they foster larger, more genetically diverse marine populations, act as safe havens for migratory species, and support ecosystem functions such as the biological carbon pump.
The Global Ocean Treaty is a vital tool for delivering a network of high seas MPAs to enable governments to realise the globally agreed “30×30” target, and has environmental impact assessment provisions to better evaluate the climate impacts of high seas activities. Rapid ratification and implementation of the Global Ocean Treaty is therefore critical for safeguarding the ocean and protecting its natural stores of carbon and the ecological processes that contribute to them.

Report: In Hotter Water – How the Global Ocean Treaty can boost climate action

Climate Change

Doubts over European SAF rules threaten cleaner aviation hopes, investors warn

Published

7 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Alice Rush

Doubts over whether governments will maintain ambitious targets on boosting the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) are a threat to the industry’s growth and play into the hands of fossil fuel companies, investors warned this week.

Several executives from airlines and oil firms have forecast recently that SAF requirements in the European Union, United Kingdom and elsewhere will be eased or scrapped altogether, potentially upending the aviation industry’s main policy to shrink air travel’s growing carbon footprint.

Such speculation poses a “fundamental threat” to the SAF industry, which mainly produces an alternative to traditional kerosene jet fuel using organic feedstocks such as used cooking oil (UCO), Thomas Engelmann, head of energy transition at German investment manager KGAL, told the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Investor conference in London.

He said fossil fuel firms would be the only winners from questions about compulsory SAF blending requirements.

What is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)?

The EU and the UK introduced the world’s first SAF mandates in January 2025, requiring fuel suppliers to blend at least 2% SAF with fossil fuel kerosene. The blending requirement will gradually increase to reach 32% in the EU and 22% in the UK by 2040.

Another case of diluted green rules?

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, CEO of French oil and gas company TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanné said he would bet “that what happened to the car regulation will happen to the SAF regulation in Europe”.

The EU watered down green rules for car-makers in March 2025 after lobbying from car companies, Germany and Italy.

“You will see. Today all the airline companies are fighting [against the EU’s 2030 SAF target of 6%],” Pouyanne said, even though it’s “easy to reach to be honest”.

While most European airline lobbies publicly support the mandates, Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said last year that the SAF is “nonsense” and is “gradually dying a death, which is what it deserves to do”.

EU and UK stand by SAF targets

But the EU and the British government have disputed that. EU transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said in November that the EU’s targets are “stable”, warning that “investment decisions and construction must start by 2027, or we will miss the 2030 targets”.

UK aviation minister Keir Mather told this week’s investor event that meeting the country’s SAF blending requirement of 10% by 2030 was “ambitious but, with the right investment, the right innovation and the right outlook, it is absolutely within our reach”.

“We need to go further and we need to go faster,” Mather said.

UK aviation minister Keir Mather speaks at the SAF Investor conference in London on February 24, 2026. (Photo: SAF Investor)

SAF investors and developers said such certainty on SAF mandates from policymakers was key to drawing the necessary investment to ramp up production of the greener fuel, which needs to scale up in order to bring down high production costs. Currently, SAF is between two and seven times more expensive than traditional jet fuel.

Urbano Perez, global clean molecules lead at Spanish bank Santander, said banks will not invest if there is a perceived regulatory risk.

David Scott, chair of Australian SAF producer Jet Zero Australia, said developing SAF was already challenging due to the risks of “pretty new” technology requiring high capital expenditure.

“That’s a scary model with a volatile political environment, so mandate questioning creates this problem on steroids”, Scott said.

Others played down the risk. Glenn Morgan, partner at investment and advisory firm SkiesFifty, said “policy is always a risk”, adding that traditional oil-based jet fuel could also lose subsidies.

A fuel truck fills up the Emirates Airlines Boeing 777-300ER with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), during a milestone demonstration flight while running one of its engines on 100% (SAF) at Dubai airport, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, January 30, 2023. REUTERS/Rula Rouhana

Asian countries join SAF mandate adopters

In Asia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Japan have recently adopted SAF mandates, and Matti Lievonen, CEO of Asia-based SAF producer EcoCeres, predicted that China, Indonesia and Hong Kong would follow suit.

David Fisken, investment director at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, said the Australian government, which does not have a mandate, was watching to see how the EU and UK’s requirements played out.

The US does not have a SAF mandate and under President Donald Trump the government has slashed tax credits available for SAF producers from $1.75 a gallon to $1.

Is the world’s big idea for greener air travel a flight of fancy?

SAF and energy security

SAF’s potential role in boosting energy security was a major theme of this week’s discussions as geopolitical tensions push the issue to the fore.

Marcella Franchi, chief commercial officer for SAF at France’s Haffner Energy, said the Canadian government, which has “very unsettling neighbours at the moment”, was looking to produce SAF to protect its energy security, especially as it has ample supplies of biomass to use as potential feedstock.

Similarly, German weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall said last year it was working on plans that would enable European armed forces to produce their own synthetic, carbon-neutral fuel “locally and independently of global fossil fuel supply chain”.

Scott said Australia needs SAF to improve its fuel security, as it imports almost 99% of its liquid fuels.

He added that support for Australian SAF production is bipartisan, in part because it appeals to those more concerned about energy security than tackling climate change.

The post Doubts over European SAF rules threaten cleaner aviation hopes, investors warn appeared first on Climate Home News.

Doubts over European SAF rules threaten cleaner aviation hopes, investors warn

Climate Change

Southern Right Whales Are Having Fewer Calves; Scientists Say a Warming Ocean Is to Blame

Published

7 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Alice Rush

After decades of recovery from commercial whaling, climate change is now threatening the whales’ future.

By Teresa Tomassoni

Southern right whales—once driven to near-extinction by industrial hunting in the 19th and 20th centuries—have long been regarded as a conservation success. After the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in the 1980s, populations began a slow but steady rebound. New research, however, suggests climate change may be undermining that recovery.

Southern Right Whales Are Having Fewer Calves; Scientists Say a Warming Ocean Is to Blame

Climate Change

Analysis: Constituency of Reform’s climate-sceptic Richard Tice gets £55m flood funding

Published

9 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Alice Rush

The Lincolnshire constituency held by Richard Tice, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of the hard-right Reform party, has been pledged at least £55m in government funding for flood defences since 2024.

This investment in Boston and Skegness is the second-largest sum for a single constituency from a £1.4bn flood-defence fund for England, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

Flooding is becoming more likely and more extreme in the UK due to climate change.

Yet, for years, governments have failed to spend enough on flood defences to protect people, properties and infrastructure.

The £1.4bn fund is part of the current Labour government’s wider pledge to invest a “record” £7.9bn over a decade on protecting hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses from flooding.

As MP for one of England’s most flood-prone regions, Tice has called for more investment in flood defences, stating that “we cannot afford to ‘surrender the fens’ to the sea”.

He is also one of Reform’s most vocal opponents of climate action and what he calls “net stupid zero”. He denies the scientific consensus on climate change and has claimed, falsely and without evidence, that scientists are “lying”.

Flood defences

Last year, the government said it would invest £2.65bn on flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) schemes in England between April 2024 and March 2026.

This money was intended to protect 66,500 properties from flooding. It is part of a decade-long Labour government plan to spend more than £7.9bn on flood defences.

There has been a consistent shortfall in maintaining England’s flood defences, with the Environment Agency expecting to protect fewer properties by 2027 than it had initially planned.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has attributed this to rising costs, backlogs from previous governments and a lack of capacity. It also points to the strain from “more frequent and severe” weather events, such as storms in recent years that have been amplified by climate change.

However, the CCC also said last year that, if the 2024-26 spending programme is delivered, it would be “slightly closer to the track” of the Environment Agency targets out to 2027.

The government has released constituency-level data on which schemes in England it plans to fund, covering £1.4bn of the 2024-26 investment. The other half of the FCERM spending covers additional measures, from repairing existing defences to advising local authorities.

The map below shows the distribution of spending on FCERM schemes in England over the past two years, highlighting the constituency of Richard Tice.

Flood-defence spending on new and replacement schemes in England in 2024-25 and 2025-26. The government notes that, as Environment Agency accounts have not been finalised and approved, the investment data is “provisional and subject to change”. Some schemes cover multiple constituencies and are not included on the map. Source: Environment Agency FCERM data.

By far the largest sum of money – £85.6m in total – has been committed to a tidal barrier and various other defences in the Somerset constituency of Bridgwater, the seat of Conservative MP Ashley Fox.

Over the first months of 2026, the south-west region has faced significant flooding and Fox has called for more support from the government, citing “climate patterns shifting and rainfall intensifying”.

He has also backed his party’s position that “the 2050 net-zero target is impossible” and called for more fossil-fuel extraction in the North Sea.

Tice’s east-coast constituency of Boston and Skegness, which is highly vulnerable to flooding from both rivers and the sea, is set to receive £55m. Among the supported projects are beach defences from Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point and upgrades to pumping stations.

Overall, Boston and Skegness has the second-largest portion of flood-defence funding, as the chart below shows. Constituencies with Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs occupied the other top positions.

Chart showing that Conservative, Reform and Liberal Democrat constituencies are the top recipients of flood defence spending — Top 10 English constituencies by FCERM funding in 2024-25 and 2025-26. Source: Environment Agency FCERM data.

Overall, despite Labour MPs occupying 347 out of England’s 543 constituencies – nearly two-thirds of the total – more than half of the flood-defence funding was distributed to constituencies with non-Labour MPs. This reflects the flood risk in coastal and rural areas that are not traditional Labour strongholds.

Reform funding

While Reform has just eight MPs, representing 1% of the population, its constituencies have been assigned 4% of the flood-defence funding for England.

Nearly all of this money was for Tice’s constituency, although party leader Nigel Farage’s coastal Clacton seat in Kent received £2m.

Reform UK is committed to “scrapping net-zero” and its leadership has expressed firmly climate-sceptic views.

Much has been made of the disconnect between the party’s climate policies and the threat climate change poses to its voters. Various analyses have shown the flood risk in Reform-dominated areas, particularly Lincolnshire.

Tice has rejected climate science, advocated for fossil-fuel production and criticised Environment Agency flood-defence activities. Yet, he has also called for more investment in flood defences, stating that “we cannot afford to ‘surrender the fens’ to the sea”.

This may reflect Tice’s broader approach to climate change. In a 2024 interview with LBC, he said:

“Where you’ve got concerns about sea level defences and sea level rise, guess what? A bit of steel, a bit of cement, some aggregate…and you build some concrete sea level defences. That’s how you deal with rising sea levels.”

While climate adaptation is viewed as vital in a warming world, there are limits on how much societies can adapt and adaptation costs will continue to increase as emissions rise.