B. Rosas:
I have been at Climate Generation for over a year now and have had the pleasure of meeting amazing environmental justice advocates, like Dr. Michelle Garvey, who teaches at the University of Minnesota. We first got to know each other during a campaign to shut down a harmful incinerator, the HERC, which has been polluting the Northside of Mpls for over a decade. These efforts are essential to the Twin Cities EJ movement and important to educate our students around, so they can see EJ lessons in real life and get activated.
Growing up in South Minneapolis, I did not receive much climate change education, let alone climate justice education. It’s not that my school didn’t teach anything about the climate crisis, but rather, that education remained shallow. Over a week or so, climate science was taught, but I wish the topic had extended beyond one unit in my 7th grade science class.
Even after learning about climate change and its effects on our lives and health, I still wasn’t activated to take action. It’s not that I didn’t care, but because my education was fear-based rather than solutions-based, I couldn’t see how young people could address it. Meanwhile, other challenges I saw my community facing, like housing insecurity, economic inequity, and racial injustice, seemed disconnected from climate change. This was because I was never taught climate justice.
I do believe that my teachers at the time did want to teach about Climate Change and Climate Justice, but didn’t have the resources to integrate these lessons into our daily curriculum. This is why our Climate Justice Education bill is crucial, as it will give educators guidance on how to teach climate justice and activate their students to not only care, but take action. Luckily there are already educators, of all grades, integrating Climate Justice Education into their curriculum.
As a UMN alum, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the environmental justice course offered through the Sustainability Studies Program and taught by Michelle Garvey. I was sent the syllabus and in awe of the different topics that would be covered, along with the resources Michelle provided her students- it was the first time I actually saw a Climate Justice Curriculum in its entirety. When Michelle asked about a collaboration between her class and I, there was no hesitation in saying yes.
Michelle Garvey:
I’d been so impressed with B.’s environmental justice (EJ) advocacy work for Climate Generation in the Twin Cities long before we’d met. B. is dedicated, knowledgeable, and passionate about grassroots organizing, so I was delighted when they accepted my invitation to be our Spring 2024 SUST3017: Environmental Justice course partner. They brought firsthand experience as a frontline EJ leader, a youth and UMN alumni perspective relatable to undergrad students, and creative lessons on political change-making over the course of four months.
These are meaningful assets for our class community, because long before EJ is a scholarly pursuit, it is a social movement. This implies that in order to convey EJ truer to its values, I believe we must collaborate with frontline leaders and produce projects of benefit to the movement.
Further, in order to teach EJ effectively–creating lasting memories of connection and empowerment–experiential, place-based learning is critical. To that end, SUST3017 incorporates off-campus experiences, such as the bus tour of North Minneapolis we embarked upon with Community Members for Environmental Justice.
The centerpiece of this semester’s partnership with B. was a state bill Climate Generation helped conceive years ago: K-12 Climate Justice Education (House File 2297 and Senate File 476). I’ve tracked this bill with interest, and wondered whether a class of undergrads could both see it cross the finish line, and even help build out the climate justice (CJ) curriculum a Minnesota Department of Education taskforce would eventually develop. So I reached out to B., who was thankfully receptive!
To prepare both for political advocacy on the bill as well as to develop CJ lessons, we held in-class conversations with the current stewards of the bill–MN Rep. Larry Kraft and MN Sen. Nicole Mitchell–as well as climate literacy expert Nick Kleese, Community Engagement Director at UMN’s Center for Climate Literacy.
B. Rosas:
Michelle does a great job at taking her EJ lessons into the real world and connecting EJ to other social issues. During our partnership, her students and I covered:
- State and local EJ campaigns and how they could join each initiative. We discussed Climate Generation’s involvement with the Zero Burn Coalition to shut down the HERC, the coalition to implement the 2023 Cumulative Impacts Law, and the Twin Cities Boulevard initiative for highway removal.
- Legislative advocacy: We reviewed how a bill becomes state law, how students can locate their elected officials and potential bills of interest, and how they can advocate for or against issues of importance to them through letter-writing, Capitol rallies, and hearing testimonies.
Introduction to climate change education: To contextualize the CJ bill that embodied the focal point of our partnership, I introduced the Green Learning framework by the Center for Universal Education at Brookings. Then I facilitated feedback sessions on the CJ bill to explore what students could add to an eventual curriculum.
Michelle Garvey:
The final projects students produced are full of intelligent, creative, action-oriented, and hopeful ways to engage Minnesota’s elementary, middle, and high school students with the CJ movement. While no one in our class was an education major–so we could not be described as education experts!–we could indeed offer expertise in the history, leadership, challenges, and outcomes of climate justice. As such, our class was uniquely prepared to ideate activities true to the global CJ movement for lessons curriculum experts could eventually fine-tune to meet state standards.
We began by designing a more robust definition of CJ than the current bill utilizes:
Climate justice is:
A global movement to recognize the disproportionate impacts of climate change on those least responsible for it; resist the root causes of climate inequity; and repair the fractured relationships that perpetuate hierarchies among peoples, nations, and species; so ecosystems may be revisioned as commons—land, water, atmosphere—that support and sustain all life on Earth.
Then we developed a list of CJ learning objectives that each lesson plan would have to address:
Climate Justice Learning Objectives:
- Align one’s understanding of climate justice with the most contemporary consensuses on climate science
- Understand local-to-global case studies
- climate injustice
- climate justice
- Using an intersectional conceptual framework, appreciate both historical & contemporary drivers (i.e. systems, structures, norms) of global climate inequity
- Know the history of the climate justice movement: its vision, goals, and methods
- Critically evaluate
- measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change
- measures to deliver climate justice
- Imagine a climate just future:
- appreciate current projects and policies that deliver climate justice
- envision climate just projects and policies yet to be implemented
- Explore climate justice networks for:
- community building
- emotional & psychological support
- career building
- Know how to leverage one’s power to implement change
Students broke into pairs or small groups according to desired subject matter and grade level. They grounded their lesson plans in stories of frontline experiences. For example, Wangari Speaks Out was selected by Julius Mims, Max Pritchard, and Maddie Robinson:
From this foundation, lesson plans seemed to fall under the general categories of data analysis, creative approaches, interactive labs, and applied thinking. Below I share highlights within these categories:
DATA ANALYSIS
A Story Map was created by Will Arent and Jill Lonning to illustrate how certain historical decision-making processes result in segregation. Using Minneapolis as a case study, high school social studies students are invited to draw conclusions about how a dozen or so maps depicting data on how, e.g., redlining, tree canopy, industrial zoning, park space, or surface temperatures paint the picture of environmental and climate injustice.
CREATIVE APPROACHES
- Takyra Baugh and Shea Hildebrant facilitate a scrapbooking activity for a high school English lesson: students research a prominent CJ activist, then create the scrapbook in the first person point of view. This lesson familiarizes students with CJ history, while an accompanying lesson on reliable CJ resources builds critical thinking skills.
LABS
- Niko, Amara, and Jacob also offer a fire-burning STEM lab on the cultural and ecological import of controlled burns for Indigenous cultural continuance as well as restoration and resilience against climate change-induced wildfires.
APPLIED THINKING
- For a K-2 community health lesson, Lilly Stahr, Bijou Acers, and Pedro De Filippo Vannucci curated a list of books that address age-appropriate subtopics of climate justice. Teachers can consult the list and either adapt books to their own classroom needs, or apply a suite of accompanying activities developed by this group.
For example, Matt de la Peña’s book Last Stop on Market Street was selected to spur conversations on public transportation, access, and mobility. An optional field trip–a bus ride through town–can inspire children to reflect upon their own experiences with public transit, our need for efficient, zero-carbon mass transit, and what is revealed to them about their town as the bus transports them from place to place.
Each of these engaging activities demonstrate how broadly applicable, creative, empirically-driven, collaborative, and/or resiliency-building CJ education can be. I’m proud of this class of burgeoning “curriculum designers” for imagining ways to equip youth for our climate-changed reality with methods of understanding, analysis, community-building, and problem solving.
B. Rosas:
Although our Climate Justice Education bill did not obtain a hearing this legislative session, we will continue our efforts to get it passed in 2025. Thanks to Climate Generation partners like Michelle and her class, we are learning more about how we can improve the bill and create an impactful CJ program for K-12 students in Minnesota. We’re grateful for Michelle’s ongoing solidarity, and we are excited to keep working with her!
Michelle Garvey:
And I am excited to continue supporting your advocacy, B.! Because of you, Climate Generation, and the youth who continue to inspire the Climate Justice Education bill, Minnesota will one day have the most robust, cutting-edge climate justice curriculum in the nation.
One final thing: because my course focuses on leverage points to create social change, each project group added an “advocacy” component to their lesson plan designed to leverage the activity by bringing it to wider audiences beyond the classroom. Because we still need to advocate for the CJ Education Bill, these components are perhaps more useful than ever. So we encourage readers to either utilize, or gain inspiration from, the following ideas to leverage your power on behalf of the global climate justice movement:
- Take climate justice education into your classrooms and homes by consulting the Hennepin County Library EJ Books Guide for Elementary Children! Thanks to Lilly Stahr, Bijou Acers, and Pedro De Filippo Vannucci for developing this publicly accessible resource!
- Communicate the need for CJ education through social media outlets, as Zoe Freeby, Jackie Martinez, Will Herbek, Maria Hanson, and Isabella Crotteau demonstrate with these model Instagram posts:
- Create and disseminate zines to educate the public about various CJ topics, modeled here by Niko Ashpande, Amara Jackson, and Jacob Gontjes:
- Utilize this template, introduced to our class by B., to contact your elected official, informing them about the necessity of CJ education in our schools!
B. serves as Policy Manager for Climate Generation. They are a Minneapolis Southsider and first generation graduate of the University of Minnesota. B. has several years experience in community organizing and policy work and is excited to bring their experiences in voting rights and housing advocacy to Climate Generation’s climate justice work. They believe in investing in our young leaders to build a better future and sustain movement work and have centered the voices of young people in previous campaigns. B. is a participant in the Wilder Foundation’s Community Equity Program, a nine-month political leadership cohort-based learning journey for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community leaders and change makers.
Dr. Michelle Garvey is an organizer and environmental and climate justice educator at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. There, she teaches with community experts on the frontlines of struggles, e.g., for zero burn, resilience hubs, community farms, just energy transition, and climate justice education.
The post Climate Justice Education, from the Capitol to the Classroom appeared first on Climate Generation.
Climate Justice Education, from the Capitol to the Classroom
Antarctic sea ice has recorded its third-smallest winter peak extent since satellite records began 48 years ago, new data reveals.
Provisional data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) shows that Antarctic sea ice hit its annual winter peak on 14 September, with an extent of 17.59m square kilometres (km2).
The organisation notes that the data is still preliminary, adding that “large fluctuations in extent are typical of Antarctic sea ice near the seasonal maximum”.
One expert tells Carbon Brief that it is “concerning to see these low values persisting”, but says that scientists need more time to determine whether this represents a “structural shift” in Antarctic sea ice extent.
Meanwhile, at the Earth’s other pole, Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum on 12 September, ranking as the joint-10th lowest in the satellite record.
The NSIDC notes that the last 20 years have seen the lowest 20 Arctic sea ice extents in the satellite record.
Antarctic peak
Dr Lettie Roach, a polar climate scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, tells Carbon Brief that this year’s Antarctic sea ice maximum was “well below average for the season”. She warns that, “after several decades of stable or increasing winter Antarctic sea ice conditions, it is concerning to see these low values persisting”.
She adds:
“Compared with the Arctic, it’s less clear how recent changes in Antarctic sea ice are attributable to human-caused warming vs natural variability. We need more years of observations to better understand whether this is truly a structural shift.”
Dr Clare Eayrs, a postdoctoral researcher at the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), tells Carbon Brief that, since recording a “near-average February minimum” extent, Antarctic sea ice has “returned to unusually low winter coverage”.
She notes that Antarctic sea ice extent in July and August this year were the fifth and fourth lowest on record, respectively, adding that “all five of the lowest July extents have occurred since 2022 and all four of the lowest August extents since 2023”.
The chart below shows Antarctic sea ice extent in 2025 (dark blue) and 2026 (red) so far. For comparison, the chart shows decadal averages (dotted lines) as well as 2023 (mid blue), the year of the smallest winter sea-ice maximum on record.
Eayrs tells Carbon Brief that the regional pattern of Antarctic sea ice cover “changed substantially during the growth season”.
For example, she says that “in April, the Bellingshausen Sea remained almost entirely ice-free, while the neighbouring Amundsen Sea had more ice than usual”.
However, by late August, changes in atmospheric pressure and wind meant that “the Bellingshausen deficit had largely recovered, while ice was unusually scarce in the Amundsen Sea and across much of East Antarctica”.
Arctic minimum
Meanwhile, the Arctic recorded its minimum summer sea ice extent on 12 September. At 4.60m km2, this year ties with 2025, 2010 and 2008 as the 10th-lowest sea ice extent on record.
The chart below shows Arctic sea ice extent in 2025 (dark blue) and 2026 (red) so far. For comparison, the chart shows decadal averages (dotted lines) as well as 2012 (mid blue), the year of the smallest summer sea-ice minimum on record.
Roach tells Carbon Brief that although this minimum is not “record setting”, it is still “lower than any sea ice minimum before 2007”. She adds:
“Human-caused climate change has reduced Arctic sea ice cover and thickness, so the region is fundamentally different compared to a few decades ago.”
Scientists have been tracking Arctic sea ice thickness using a reanalysis produced called the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) since 1979.
In March 2026, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) terminated a global dataset of air pressure that scientists relied upon to produce PIOMAS, forcing both datasets to stop publishing updates.
The PIOMAS website says it will take “considerable effort and time” to find alternative data to use in their reanalysis. It adds that “we don’t yet have a good sense if that’s possible with available funds and if so, when we will be able to resume production of a new PIOMAS timeseries”.
Roach also notes that August saw record-breaking heat sweep across much of the world, explaining that high temperatures “extended into Arctic coastal regions, close to regions with substantial sea ice loss – particularly the Barents-Kara and East Siberian seas”.
Dr Zack Labe, a scientist at Climate Central, tells Carbon Brief that the absence of a new record does not mean that ice cover is becoming more “resilient”. He says:
“Local weather patterns across the Arctic play a really important role in year-to-year sea-ice extent, even as the long-term trend is clearly downward.”
Labe tells Carbon Brief that weather in the Arctic this summer was “influenced mainly by lower pressure toward the central Arctic, which brought cloudier and cooler conditions that limited surface melt and delayed the start of the melt season”.
He explains that this “was most obvious across parts of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, where the melt season didn’t really kick off until after early July, which was more than two weeks later than normal”.
In contrast, he says, the Atlantic side of the Arctic “had a much more extreme summer”, with sea ice in the Barents Sea recording its “earliest melt-out on record”.
This was partly due to “unusually warm air and ocean temperatures”, Labe says. He notes, for example, that parts of western Siberia saw unusually persistent temperatures more than 5C above the 1981-2010 average for much of the summer, which extended out over the Kara Sea and contributed to substantial ice melt in this area”.
Labe tells Carbon Brief that, going forward, scientists need “more data and observations of other sea-ice metrics, like ice thickness, which may give us better insight into the overall condition of the ice pack, especially during years like 2026 when it is very fragmented”.
(In March 2026, Arctic sea ice reached its peak extent for this winter, clocking in as the joint-smallest in a satellite record going back almost half a century.)
Related
Guest post: Climate change has caused one-fifth of Pine Island glacier retreat
‘Very alarming’ winter sees Arctic sea ice hit record-low for second year running
Q&A: How Trump is threatening climate science in Earth’s polar regions
Limiting warming to 2C is ‘crucial’ to protect pristine Antarctic Peninsula
The post ‘Concerning’ low sea ice persists as Antarctic hits third-lowest winter peak appeared first on Carbon Brief.
‘Concerning’ low sea ice persists as Antarctic hits third-lowest winter peak
Participants at COP31 in Antalya will have a “duty” not to interfere in Türkiye’s internal affairs under the country’s hosting deal with the UN, reviving a clause dropped for last year’s climate summit in Brazil that human rights groups warn could put activists at risk.
Türkiye has faced growing criticism from human rights groups over the jailing of opposition figures, journalists and activists and imposed a blanket protest ban around July’s summit of the NATO military alliance in Ankara.
The contested provision is included in the binding agreement between the UN climate secretariat and the Turkish government that sets out responsibilities over logistical arrangements and details participants’ rights and obligations.
The document, signed in June but only made public on Wednesday, gives accredited COP31 attendees immunity from legal action over what they say, write or do in connection with the conference. Climate Home News understands that this safeguard can be applied to what takes place both inside and, in certain circumstances, outside of the UN-controlled COP “Blue Zone”. For the first time, this protection explicitly continues after the summit ends.
But participants enjoying these “privileges and immunities” also have a duty to respect Türkiye’s laws and regulations and not to interfere in its internal affairs, the agreement states. Rights groups fear its wide-ranging formulation could be used to discourage criticism of the host government.
Climate Home News understands that whether an action is covered by the immunity or infringes on the host’s internal affairs would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with close coordination between the country’s authorities and the UN climate change body.
A separate provision states that immunity shall be waived where the UN believes it would “impede the course of justice”.
‘Chilling effect’
Those same provisions featured in the host country agreements for COP28 in the United Arab Emirates and COP29 in Azerbaijan, both regarded as authoritarian regimes, before being dropped for COP30 in Brazil.
Ann Harrison, climate justice policy advisor at Amnesty International, said it is “extremely disappointing” that the COP31 agreement re-introduced clauses that could “hinder the ability of human rights defenders and civil society organisations to conduct their work safely”.
COP31 electrification pledge leaves out clean power commitment
She added the provisions could have a “wider chilling effect” on rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, given concerns over the human rights situation in Türkiye, including laws that “have shrunk civic space” and their “abusive” implementation by authorities.
The UN climate change body declined to comment.
Rights groups have documented blanket protest bans, unlawful use of force by the police and prosecutions of journalists, human rights defenders and lawyers across Türkiye in the last year.
Arrests and protest bans
Last July, environmental activist Esra Işık was sentenced to more than two years for “resisting” a public official over what Amnesty International described as a peaceful protest against an urgent expropriation order linked to the expansion of coal mining in south-western Türkiye. She is appealing the conviction.
Ahead of a summit of the NATO alliance in the capital Ankara in July, authorities put in place a 13-day blanket ban on demonstrations, citing “national security”, and arrested over 200 people. Human Rights Watch said the crackdown showed Türkiye’s “ruthless intolerance of freedom of speech and assembly”.
Earlier this month, Turkish police detained dozens of people as part of what rights groups described as the government’s widening crackdown on LGBTQ+ activists and venues.
Questioned by media as to how he would guarantee the right to protest at COP31, Kurum said earlier in September that his team would “try to meet” any request they receive from civil society and give them “a free space to express themselves”.
“Don’t worry, thinking you will not be able to voice your opinions or really share your thoughts,” he said in an attempt to reassure campaigners, adding that he had put former deputy environment minister Mehmet Birpinar in charge of liaising with civil society.
Civic space needed
Camilla Pollera, human rights and climate change campaigner at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), said meaningful participation at COP31 is fundamental to the legitimacy of climate action.
“At a climate summit, civil society participation necessarily includes being present, speaking out, scrutinising governments’ decisions and climate policies, and advocating for communities most vulnerable to climate change,” she added.
At last year’s COP30 summit, thousands of Indigenous people and climate activists peacefully marched through the Amazonian city of Belém in the first major demonstration outside the UN venue in four years. Smaller-scale demonstrations were largely confined to the “Blue Zone” at COP27 in Egypt, COP28 in the UAE and COP29 in Azerbaijan.
In two other separate incidents in Belém, members of the Munduruku tribe blocked access to the conference centre for hours, demanding an end to development projects in their ancestral land, and protesters stormed through the venue clashing with UN security officials.
The COP31 hosting agreement keeps some of the safeguards previously hailed by civil society groups. The government and the UN secretariat commit to upholding “the fundamental human rights” of all participants in the agreement’s preamble.
Under the deal, Türkiye also needs to ensure that security personnel follow “the highest ethical and professional standards and are expected to behave with integrity and respect”.
The post COP31 attendees told not to interfere in Türkiye’s “internal affairs” appeared first on Climate Home News.
COP31 attendees told not to interfere in Türkiye’s “internal affairs”
As rising seas submerge growing swathes of land, countries that lose territory should still keep their national boundaries, sovereign rights and UN membership, according to a political declaration adopted at the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.
The declaration, which was championed by climate-vulnerable small island states, affirms “the presumption in favour of continued statehood” in the face of sea level rise fuelled by climate change, and urges countries to work together to assist communities affected by encroaching oceans.
Speaking at a high-level UN meeting to address the existential threats posed by sea level rise, Cabo Verde’s Prime Minister Francisco Carvalho, one of the initiative’s co-facilitators along with Australia, said the adoption of the text by consensus sends “a message of hope”.
“This declaration has a very special meaning. For us, sea level rise is neither a distant threat nor a theoretical concern,” he said, adding that rising seas put at risk key infrastructure, water resources and economic growth in small island states.
In the Pacific, sea levels have risen at twice the global rate, dramatically increasing coastal flooding events from two to 20 a year in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and from zero to 102 events per year in American Samoa, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Surangel Whipps Jr., president of the Pacific island of Palau, said the summit in New York represents a “moment of international solidarity”, and highlighted that small island states will remain permanent members of the UN.
-
Push for cooking to be part of COP31’s electrification agenda
The President of Kenya and the British climate envoy said Africa should use the global electrification push to roll out clean cooking -
Germany unveils plan to end use of fossil fuels in energy sector by 2045
Germany became the third country to publish a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels after France and the Netherlands, as the UN chief calls on all governments to follow -
UN Climate Summit: UN chief says world has tools to end fossil fuel age
At the UN Secretary-General’s climate summit in New York, countries shared their energy transition plans while Nepal and island nations advocated for more international support
Declaration recognises statehood
An advisory opinion by the world’s top maritime court, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), first upheld in 2024 that countries do not have to shrink their maritime borders even if they lose land territory due to sea level rise. This was reiterated by the International Court of Justice in last year’s landmark ruling on the climate obligations of states.
The new declaration endorsed by all governments at the UN General Assembly stresses that sea level rise “is not a distant scenario but a real and lived experience for many”, and notes that international law must be implemented in global responses to rising seas.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the “milestone must now be translated into action”, adding that the declaration should encourage an “ongoing dialogue” at the “highest possible level” leading to practical outcomes. Pacific islands have proposed an international treaty on sea level rise that would provide more legal certainty.
“Those on the frontlines must be front and centre on every decision. We cannot allow countries and cultures to vanish beneath the waves,” he said. “The SOS has gone out. The world must answer.”
At regional summit, Pacific islands ask for COP31 support for clean energy and finance
Goodwin Friday, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said measures to protect vulnerable states will require adequate finance. “Investing in resilience now is more cost-effective than paying the far greater price for loss and damage later,” he added.
Championed by Australia’s COP31 co-presidency, Pacific islands have sought to put adaptation to sea level rise and ocean conservation at the top of the political agenda by inviting world leaders to attend the pre-COP31 summit co-hosted by Fiji and Tuvalu in October.
Tuvalu will also host the second global fossil fuel phase-out summit in April 2027, after around 60 governments met this year in Santa Marta, Colombia, to discuss ending their dependence on coal, oil and gas.
“Our coastlines, our reefs and our communities are living with the consequences of fossil fuel dependence every day, and our people have earned the right to help shape the way forward,” Lynda Tabuya, Fiji’s climate minister, said in a statement announcing details of the conference.
Ocean monitoring gets a boost in New York
Amid record-breaking marine heat and seas rising at unprecedented speed, governments in New York announced new commitments to protect the world’s ocean, as efforts to bolster marine ecosystems and coastal communities rise up the political agenda.
On Wednesday, the EU and Canada announced more funding for a new Europe-led ocean monitoring system called OceanEye, launched in the aftermath of a failed attempt by the Trump administration to dismantle the largest existing network of deep-sea observatories.
During an event at UN headquarters in New York, EU President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced around $163 million in new funding for the initiative, with the EU pledging €92 million ($105m) on top of existing seed funding and Canada pledging C$82 million (US$58m) over five years.
According to an EU statement, while OceanEye will collaborate with the Global Ocean Observing System, that network “remains vulnerable to financial shortfalls and geopolitical disruptions”. A group of 30 countries from Europe, Africa and the Americas joined an international initiative in support of OceanEye, including large coastal nations like Brazil, Namibia and Mexico.
Von der Leyen said OceanEye “can make us the leading ocean data provider in a matter of years”, including by launching new satellites and installing new observatories in the deep ocean. “From outer space to the deepest ocean, our funding helps us keep watch beneath the waves,” she added.
Carney said the initiative would help protect Canada’s Arctic region with real-time monitoring operating year-round. “We can’t protect what we can’t see,” he said, also highlighting that Canada had expanded conservation of its ocean territory from 1% a decade ago to 15% now.
In New York, a group of 19 countries said they are either developing or implementing plans to sustainably manage all of their ocean territory, with 12 new nations joining the initiative. In a joint communiqué, they called on more countries to sign up ahead of COP31.
Warnings of El Niño-fuelled extreme heat
Scientists and world leaders have raised the alarm over this year’s record-breaking marine temperatures, which have persisted above historical peaks for more than 100 days as the naturally occurring El Niño phenomenon intensifies in the Pacific.
Extreme ocean heat could become a threat to coastal ecosystems and communities, experts fear. Water temperatures 1.5C above normal levels have also rapidly fuelled a strong hurricane in the Pacific in recent days.
Despite scientific calls for additional ocean conservation efforts, a report launched this week in New York warned that efforts to protect ocean ecosystems are lagging behind, with only 10% of the global ocean covered by conservation areas and just 3.5% designated as “effectively protected”.
The post Threatened by rising seas, small islands secure right to keep their statehood appeared first on Climate Home News.
Threatened by rising seas, small islands secure right to keep their statehood
-
Greenhouse Gases2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change1 year ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases1 year ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Climate Change2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Renewable Energy11 months agoSending Progressive Philanthropist George Soros to Prison?
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Bill Discounting Climate Change in Florida’s Energy Policy Awaits DeSantis’ Approval
-
Greenhouse Gases1 year ago
嘉宾来稿：探究火山喷发如何影响气候预测
-
Climate Change2 years agoAnalysis: China’s CO2 falls 1% in Q2 2024 in first quarterly drop since Covid-19