A school of dreamfish (Sarpa salpa) off the coast of Spain’s Medes Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Reinhard Dirscherl / ullstein bild via Getty Images
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In a series of 40 action-based initiatives, the European Union is investing $3.71 billion to advance ocean sustainability and conservation in 2024, the bloc’s environment commissioner said.
The announcement was made at the Our Ocean Conference in Greece and is the largest pledge by the EU since the conference began a decade ago, a press release from the European Commission said.
“Mitigation and adaptation are not enough. We must also focus on protection and restoration to insulate land and seas from harmful human activity and to give space to nature to heal,” Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, as Reuters reported.
The goal of the Our Ocean Conference is to foster international support for sustainable development and marine conservation, the press release said. At this year’s conference, the EU is seeking to cover all the event’s themes: marine protected areas, marine pollution, sustainable fisheries and blue economies, ocean and climate change, maritime security and more.
The EU has committed as much as $2.02 billion for sustainable fisheries under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. These funds will be put toward efforts in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Poland for resilience and recovery plans to support reforms and investments in aquaculture and sustainable fisheries.
The bloc has also pledged $1.44 million to fund marine biodiversity in areas that are part of the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement (BBNJ). Another $25.5 million will go toward the protection and conservation of marine ecosystems and biodiversity in the Maldives, the French Southern and Antarctic Lands and Southern Africa’s Blue Benguela Current.
Additional funding will be provided for ocean observation programs and the advancement of ocean models research for climate forecasts, as well as sustainable blue economies in places like Italy, Portugal, Mauritania, Western Africa, Mozambique, Angola and the Mediterranean region.
The EU is also pledging $98 million to help secure a sustainable blue economy and restore “our blue planet” through EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters.
“The ocean and seas cover 71% of the Earth’s surface. The ocean is under pressure: it suffers from global warming, unsustainable practices, illegal fishing, pollution and the loss of marine habitats,” the press release said. “Originally launched in 2014, the Our Ocean Conference has since mobilised more than 2,160 commitments worth approximately $130 billion.”
In addition to ocean threats like plastic pollution, habitat destruction and overfishing, in February, global ocean temperatures reached a record high, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“The ocean is part of who we are, and our shared responsibility,” said Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, in the press release. “One year after the conclusion of the BBNJ Agreement, I am glad to reiterate, here in Greece, the EU’s ambition to continue acting as a driving force towards ocean sustainability.”
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