Welcome to Carbon Brief’s Cropped.
We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
LA up in flames
ANIMAL IMPACT: At least 25 people died in blazing wildfires that tore through 40,000 acres of land in Los Angeles, NBC News reported. Vox examined how the fires “affected the animals and wildlife who call Los Angeles their home”. Videos showed people evacuating with everything from chickens to horses, Vox said, and one animal shelter took in more than 300 animals. Gavin Jones, an ecologist at the US Forest Service, told the outlet in 2023: “In this new era of rapidly changing fire regimes, we don’t have a great roadmap for how to conserve wildlife.” Al Jazeera explained that wildfires can result in “some wildlife [losing] their habitat”, which can lead to ecosystem imbalance.
AGRI AFFECTED: The fires affected farm infrastructure and animals in the surrounding region, an agricultural meteorologist told RFD TV. A citrus and avocado farm in Pauma Valley, more than two hours from Los Angeles, was impacted by the fire-fuelling Santa Ana winds. Farmer Andy Lyall told ABC News that gusts blew down fruit from his trees, ruining around half of his crops. The “strong and gusty” Santa Ana winds occur several times a year in southern California, BBC News outlined, creating “ripe conditions” for wildfires. (See Carbon Brief’s article on the role of climate change in the fires.)
PARKS AND TREES: Satellite images published in Al Jazeera showed how houses, trees and other infrastructure were scorched in the fires. The Palisades fire – the largest of the fires – “destroyed” historic buildings and other infrastructure at two major parks, according to a statement from California State Parks. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times looked at claims and counter-claims about the risk shrubs and brush posed to the spread of the wildfires. Chief Brian Fennessy from the Orange County Fire Authority told the newspaper that clearing brush is “very effective” at limiting fire spread on a normal day, but not against the strength of these fires and winds.
Brazil: COP30, Amazon shipping and soy moratorium
ROCKY WATERS: Brazil’s government cancelled a bid for a “dredging project” to aid the docking of cruise ships in Belém when it hosts COP30 later this year, according to Folha de São Paulo. The dredging, which would remove sediment from the bottom of the port, was expected to impact “the composition of sediments, the behaviour of aquatic mammals and the quality of the water itself”, the newspaper said. The project was aimed to increase accommodation amid a shortage of hotel rooms for the climate summit.
‘RISKY’ SHIPPING PLANS: Meanwhile, Mongabay looked at Brazil’s plans to develop new shipping channels in Amazon waterways, which experts say could “result in conversion of traditional peoples’ lands to carbon-intensive agriculture”. The outlet said the country is “poised” to invest in developing more than 2,000km of channels for agribusiness transport in “shrinking rivers”. Dr José Marengo, a climatologist and hydrology specialist, said it is “crazy” to consider creating the shipping channels in certain rivers because of the “extremely low [water] levels, mainly due to the droughts of 2023 and 2024. It’s very risky.”
SOY PACT: Elsewhere in Brazil, the supreme court will soon rule on a request challenging a state law that would end tax breaks for grain traders who avoid soy from recently deforested areas of the Amazon, Reuters reported. The legislation was passed in Mato Grosso last year, but will not take effect until a final court decision in February, the newswire said. The law added “growing pressure” to Brazil’s soy moratorium – the “voluntary pact” to ban the purchase of soy from deforested Amazon areas after 2008, Reuters noted. Last month, a farmer lobby group asked the country’s antitrust agency to investigate the signatories of this pact, describing them as a “purchasing cartel”, the newswire said.
Spotlight
Illegal rewilding in Scotland
In this Spotlight, Carbon Brief explores the curious case of the illegal reintroduction of four Eurasian lynx in the Scottish Highlands.
A few days ago, a pair of labrador-sized cats with dappled fur and tufty ears were spotted wandering free in Cairngorms national park in the Scottish Highlands.
They were quickly identified as Eurasian lynx, a species of big cat that went extinct in the UK more than 1,000 years ago. (They are still widely found across Europe and Asia).
The cats were released illegally, according to the police and the national park authority. The animals – along with a second pair caught on camera traps a day later – were captured humanely and brought to a nearby wildlife park. One has since died.
While there is a growing movement advocating for the reintroduction of lynx in order to “rewild” Scotland, none of the conservation groups involved with such calls have claimed responsibility for the release.
One charity called the move “reckless” and “highly irresponsible”, warning the cats were most likely raised in captivity and would have died after being left alone in the wild.
Despite this, there is “speculation” that the most likely culprit is “someone who had grown frustrated with the slow progress” of the campaign to reintroduce lynx to Scotland and decided to “take matters into their own hands”, according to the Guardian.
Guerrilla rewilding
The UK has a long history of illegal animal releases shaping its ecosystems.
Multiple introductions of grey squirrels since the 1890s has all but wiped out the native red across most of the country. Further illicit releases, once blamed on the US musician Jimi Hendrix, have allowed feral green parakeets to spread across London and its surrounding areas.
More recently, conservationists have warned of the growing practice of “beaver bombing”, the covert release of beavers into natural areas by advocates who think the government is not moving fast enough to reintroduce the rodents as part of rewilding efforts. (The new Labour government is reportedly blocking plans to legalise beaver releases in England.)
Both beavers and lynx are considered to be “keystone species”, meaning they can have an outsized impact on the environment surrounding them.
A group of beavers released illegally in the River Otter in Devon were given official permission to stay by the government after a five-year trial showed that their dam-building helped to alleviate flood risk and local pollution.
Climate carnivores
Advocates of reintroducing lynx to Scotland say that the predators could help to reshape the forest ecosystem surrounding them through the “ecology of fear”.
In essence, lynx litter the landscape with their faeces and urine, prompting roe deer – their main prey – to keep moving, rather than staying still and overgrazing on young vegetation before it has had a chance to establish.
Over time, this could help to create a denser forest environment, with benefits for storing carbon and boosting biodiversity, it is argued.
However, research has found that local communities in Scotland have mixed feelings about reintroducing lynx.
A study published in 2023 involving interviews with more than 40 people found that some locals were in favour of reintroducing lynx, either for economic or environmental reasons, while others were “unconvinced” of the evidence supporting the benefits or felt strongly opposed to the idea of big cats being set loose.
The farmers’ union NFU Scotland opposes the reintroduction of lynx over fears the animals could hunt and kill livestock.
News and views
BIDEN BACKTRACKS: The Biden administration “abruptly” stepped back from a plan to protect old-growth forests after “pushback from Republicans and the timber industry”, the Associated Press reported. This ended a “years-long process to…better protect old trees that are increasingly threatened by climate change”, the newswire said. Opponents argued that restricting logging in older forests was not necessary, partly because “many forested areas already are protected”, the AP said. Alex Craven from the Sierra Club conservation group said there was a “scientific necessity and public expectation” to protect these forests.
WATER WOES: Climate change is “wreaking havoc” on the Earth’s water cycle, according to the Global Water Monitor’s 2024 report, covered by the Indian Express. Last year, water-related disasters killed at least 8,700 people, displaced 40 million and resulted in economic losses exceeding $550bn globally, the newspaper said. At the same time, there were 38% more record-dry months, compared to the period 1995-2005. In 2025, droughts could intensify in northern South America, southern Africa and parts of Asia, it added.
KOALAS AT RISK: Logging in the proposed “Great Koala national park” in New South Wales, Australia, has increased since 2023, according to an analysis covered by the Guardian. In March 2023, a new Labor state government came into power, promising to protect the area. But the report, from the conservation group North East Forest Alliance, found that more than 7,000 hectares of forest has been logged in the region since then, the newspaper said. New South Wales agriculture minister Tara Moriarty said “the claims in the report are not true” and the government was “getting on with delivering a Great Koala national park while at the same time ensuring a sustainable timber industry”.
BOTSWANA ADAPTATION: Botswana has put forward a new climate plan to the UN, prioritisting adaptation measures, such as introducing drought-tolerant crops and cows, over measures to cut its already-low emissions, Climate Home News reported. Botswana’s climate plan, known as a “nationally determined contribution” (NDC), said that, “as Botswana is one of the lowest emitters in the world, the limited financial resources available will be prioritised for adaptation”. Climate Home News said that the move has been “praised by African climate negotiators as a model that low-emitting, vulnerable countries should follow”.
FUTURE CROP YIELDS: Senior officials in India believe that rice and wheat yields will drop by 6-10% in future due to climate change, the Press Trust of India reported, via the Kashmir Observer. This will “significantly impac[t] farmers and food security”, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the director general of the India Meteorological Department, told the newspaper. In 2023-24, India’s wheat output exceeded 113m tonnes – about 14% of the global output, the outlet noted. The country also produced more than 137m tonnes of rice.
Watch, read, listen
BACK IN TIME: The possibilities and scientific developments around species “de-extinction” were discussed in a Yale Environment 360 feature.
ON THE MOVE: An article in Vox explored how wildlife migrations are “increasingly threatened” by roads, climate-fuelled extreme weather and agricultural fields.
DAILY FIX: An editorial in the Financial Times examined how climate change is “mostly to blame” for skyrocketing coffee and chocolate prices.
‘UNIT OF NATURE’: In the first Georgina Mace Review, an annual conservation biology journal named after the late UK scientist, a group of biologists examine whether it is possible to create a standardised measure for biodiversity, otherwise known as a “unit of nature”.
New science
- A Nature study found that one-quarter of freshwater animal species are at “high risk” of extinction. The researchers assessed the global extinction risk of more than 23,000 freshwater species, finding that fauna faced several “prevalent threats”, such as pollutants, agriculture and invasive species.
- Crop and grass biomass production could decline by more than 50% by 2050 in parts of west Africa due to climate change and other factors, a study in Scientific Reports said. The results of the modelling “underscore the intricate interplay between climate, crops, livestock and emissions”, the researchers wrote.
- Forests in Borneo that had been selectively logged retained relatively high levels of biodiversity, compared to areas that had been cleared to make way for palm oil plantations, research in Science found. The findings “demonstrate the complexity of land-use impacts on ecosystems”, the study said.
In the diary
- 15-18 January: Global Forum for Food and Agriculture | Berlin
- 16 January: Vanuatu parliamentary elections
- 16-17 January: G20 first sustainable finance working group meeting | South Africa
- 20 January: US presidential inauguration day | Washington DC
- 20-24 January: World Economic Forum annual meeting | Davos, Switzerland
Cropped is researched and written by Dr Giuliana Viglione, Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne, Orla Dwyer and Yanine Quiroz. Please send tips and feedback to cropped@carbonbrief.org
The post Cropped 15 January 2025: LA up in flames; Illegal rewilding in Scotland; COP30 dredging cancelled appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Cropped 15 January 2025: LA up in flames; Illegal rewilding in Scotland; COP30 dredging cancelled
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.)
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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.
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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
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