This article, published originally by InfoAmazonia, is part of the project Every Last Drop, produced with the support of the Global Commons Alliance, sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
The Amazon now holds nearly one-fifth of the world’s recently discovered oil and natural gas reserves, establishing itself as a new global frontier for the fossil fuel industry.
Almost 20 percent of global reserves identified between 2022 and 2024 are located in the region, primarily offshore along South America’s northern coast between Guyana and Suriname. This wealth has sparked increasing international interest from oil companies and neighbouring countries like Brazil, which is looking to exploit its own coastal resources.
In total, the Amazon region accounts for 5.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of around 25 billion discovered worldwide during this period, according to Global Energy Monitor data, which tracks energy infrastructure development globally.
“The Amazon and adjacent offshore blocks account for a large share of the world’s recent oil and gas discoveries,” said Gregor Clark, lead of the Energy Portal for Latin America, an initiative of Global Energy Monitor. For him, however, this expansion is “inconsistent with international emissions targets and portends significant environmental and social consequences, both globally and locally.”
The region encompasses 794 oil and gas blocks – which are officially designated areas for exploration, though the existence of resources is not guaranteed. Nearly 70 percent of these Amazon blocks are either still under study or available for market bidding, meaning they remain unproductive.
In contrast, 60 percent of around 2,250 South American blocks outside the rainforest basin have already been awarded – authorized for reserve exploration and production – making the Amazon a promising avenue for further industry expansion, according to data from countries compiled by the Arayara International Institute up to July 2024. Of the entire Amazon territory, only French Guiana is devoid of oil blocks, as contracts have been banned by law there since 2017.
This new wave of oil exploration threatens a biome critical to the planet’s climate balance and the people who live there, coinciding with a global debate on reducing fossil fuel dependency.
“It’s no use talking about sustainable development if we keep exploiting oil,” said Guyanese Indigenous leader Mario Hastings. “We need real change that includes Indigenous communities and respects our rights.”
Across the eight Amazon countries analysed, 81 of all the awarded oil and gas blocks overlap with 441 ancestral lands, and 38 blocks were awarded within the limits of 61 protected natural areas. Hundreds of additional blocks are still under study or open for bids, the Arayara data shows.
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Abundant in natural resources, the Amazon seldom benefits from their production. Instead, half of South America’s oil is exported to foreign markets, primarily to the United States and China, according to data from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Royalties from the industry have exacerbated inequality rather than fostering local development, saddling the region with deforestation and water pollution from oil operations.
Meanwhile, Brazil will host more than 190 countries in the Amazon city of Belém later this year for the COP30 UN climate summit, which top diplomat André Aranha Corrêa do Lago has said will be “the first to undeniably take place at the epicentre of the climate crisis”, in an ecosystem on the verge of crossing an “irreversible tipping point”.
A new oil rush on the Amazon coast
Guyana, a small and hitherto inconspicuous nation in South America, has become the hotspot for global oil discoveries, earning the moniker “the new Dubai”, a designation often used by foreign executives at newly established companies in the country.
The oil boom has propelled Guyana’s economy forward, yet it also presents challenges such as rising inflation and worsening social inequality. Moreover, the burgeoning oil industry poses a threat to the country’s remarkable natural landscape, with 90 percent of Guyana still covered by the Amazon rainforest.
“The world is moving towards a future without fossil fuels, but Guyana is opening itself up to oil and gas,” said Guyanese environmentalist Sherlina Nagger. “Our leaders are on the wrong side of history.”
Recent substantial discoveries in neighboring Suriname, along with those in Guyana, have reignited interest in the “equatorial margin“. This coastal strip extends for thousands of kilometres near the equator and largely encompasses the Amazon biome.
Over 92 percent of the offshore blocks in the Amazon are either under study or available for market bidding, according to the project analysis.
Meanwhile, in the region, Venezuela has rekindled its interest in annexing Essequibo, a contested Guyanese territory. This area, once disputed by the Spanish and British empires in the 19th century, has again become a focus of attention due to its oil potential.
Meanwhile, Brazil, which is home to the largest portion of this strategic zone, faces obstacles to its oil exploration efforts. These include a history of unsuccessful drilling attempts dating back to the 1970s and, more recently, repeated refusals to allow state-owned oil company Petrobras to conduct research in Block 59. This area is situated in the Foz do Amazonas, where the mouth of Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean.
In May 2023, Ibama, Brazil’s environmental agency, denied Petrobras’ application to research the block. The agency’s report, endorsed by 26 analysts and reaffirmed in November 2024, highlighted flaws in the company’s emergency plans, which could endanger sensitive Amazonian ecosystems. This area has the largest continuous mangrove expanse in the world and a recently documented extensive reef system, both of which have significant scientific and ecological potential.
Such efforts to find fossil fuels in the region pose significant threats to the climate, researchers caution. “Opening up new areas for oil exploration in the Amazon contradicts the Paris Agreement’s recommendations to limit global warming,” warned Philip Fearnside, a scientist at the National Institute for Amazon Research. “Moreover, the risk of oil spills in this region would be catastrophic.”
Despite the risks, Petrobras remains undeterred in its pursuit of exploring the equatorial margin – and key figures in the Brazilian government have voiced their support for extraction. Finance minister Fernando Haddad preached “all caution” to ensure safe exploration, while Alexandre Silveira, minister of mines and energy, remarked that Guyana is “sucking the oil” from the region due to Brazil’s inaction.
“We’re going to explore the equatorial margin; there’s no reason not to,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated in a June 2024 interview.
Under political pressure, Marina Silva, Brazil’s minister for the environment and climate change, has reiterated that the decision made by Ibama, an agency under her ministry, is “technical”. She stressed the importance of adhering to the agency’s procedures to prevent “irreparable” environmental harm to the region.
Ecuador and Peru: a legacy of exploitation – and damage
Whereas oil exploration on the equatorial margin is just beginning, countries such as Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia have been producing oil in the Amazon for decades. While this activity has helped boost their economies, it has also deepened the damage to the biome.
In Ecuador, oil accounts for more than seven percent of the country’s GDP, but its production has resulted in an average of two oil spills a week in recent years. Since the 1970s, when the American company Texaco (now Chevron) opened the first major exploration frontier in the Ecuadorian Amazon, accidents have plagued the region.
Today, state-owned Petroecuador plays a leading role in the development of oil fields in the Ecuadorian Amazon. According to the project analysis, the state-owned enterprise oversees 24 oil and gas blocks. This is the largest number within Ecuador and ranks second among Amazon nations, after Brazilian natural gas company Eneva.
Among Petroecuador’s operations is the contentious Block 43 in Yasuní National Park, a sanctuary for one of the world’s most biodiverse regions and home to Indigenous peoples living in isolation. In August 2023, a historic referendum mandated the cessation of oil drilling in the park. The government was allowed one year to halt the activities; however, progress has been minimal, with efforts largely confined to forming a commission to oversee the measures sanctioned by the public vote.
“They are violating the most fundamental aspect of any democratic system: the will of the people expressed at the ballot box,” said Alex Rivas Toledo, an anthropologist and author of a book on the isolated peoples of the Yasuní.
To date, 21 blocks have been authorised within protected natural areas in the Ecuadorian Amazon, covering more than 7,000 square kilometres – the largest overlap among the countries analysed.
Of Ecuador’s 15 Indigenous nationalities, 11 reside in the Amazon region, where their way of life is often at odds with oil exploration efforts. The country has granted oil blocks that impact 207 Indigenous territories – the most among the countries analysed – covering nearly 21,000 square kilometres in the Amazon.
In Peru, which ranks second with nearly 14,000 square kilometres of oil blocks overlapping with 143 Indigenous lands, oil royalties have failed to improve the lives of local peoples, who grapple with poverty and limited access to essential services like healthcare.
Gas flaring affects Amazonians
In the Amazon, beyond the extraction of oil, gas flaring poses a significant concern. Seen from miles away, these intense flames blaze atop metal towers, discharging excess gas from oil exploration directly into the atmosphere. This process emits both carbon dioxide and methane, the latter causing 80 times more climate warming over short 20-year timescales.
Despite the harm this practice inflicts on the climate and human health, it is still permitted in some countries and is especially prevalent in remote areas like the Amazon, where inadequate infrastructure hampers the capture and processing of gas.
In 2023, Ecuador burned off 1.6 billion cubic metres of gas in oil operations in the Amazon, an amount more than triple the country’s total annual gas consumption, according to data analysis based on SkyTruth Flaring, a platform that employs satellite imagery to identify flaring.
Between 2012 and 2023, 17.6 billion cubic metres of gas were released in the Amazon. Ecuador was the predominant contributor, responsible for 75 percent of the total, equating to 34 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions released into the atmosphere.
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Ecuador is making internal efforts to address these emissions. In 2021, a regional court ordered the government to remove some of the oil industry’s gas flares located near populated areas in the Amazon provinces. However, this ruling has yet to be fully executed.
“We grew up alongside oil flares that, for more than half a century, have brought death, destruction, and poverty to our Amazon,” stated a group of young Amazonian women in a manifesto. Together with an organisation representing victims of the former Texaco, they are pursuing legal action to halt gas flaring in Ecuador.
The energy transition in Colombia faces obstacles
Since taking office in 2022, President Gustavo Petro has sought to steer Colombia in a different direction to other Amazonian nations by proposing environmentally ambitious policies. These include a ban on new oil and gas exploration, the cessation of fracking – a method involving the high-pressure injection of fluids to extract oil and gas which poses significant risks – and the suspension of offshore oil projects.
But Colombia faces a challenge with its existing 381 oil and gas contracts, which must be honoured, while the industry continues to push for research of new reserves.
Industry lobbyists claim that the nation has less than ten years’ worth of oil to meet domestic demands, which has fuelled exploration efforts. Between 2022 and 2023, Colombia ranked among the top ten countries in terms of discovered reserve volumes, according to Global Energy Monitor. Additionally, in 2024, Colombia’s state-owned Ecopetrol, along with Brazil’s Petrobras, uncovered new natural gas reserves in the country.
Luiz Afonso Rosário of climate campaign group 350.org Brasil said that, for decades, oil has been presented as a promise of economic liberation for South American countries. Yet, he stressed: “What we see is that all the social ills are there, and only half a dozen people have got rich.”
For Rosário, the chasm between promises and reality in the Amazon underscores an urgent need for a broader and more inclusive debate on the future of the biome. “They’re going to devastate the Amazon with more infrastructure to benefit the fossil industry. We should be investing in renewable energies,” he argued.
The post The Amazon rainforest emerges as the new global oil frontier appeared first on Climate Home News.
The Amazon rainforest emerges as the new global oil frontier
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”.
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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.”
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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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