By Jite Eriabie
Fiji Ambassador and the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson, has stressed the urgent need to address the adverse effects of human activity on the 70% of the world’s surface made up of water.
During a visit to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack Lim, Thomson said, “We are all aware of ‘Climate Change’ but we need to talk more about ‘Ocean Change’ and the effects of acidification, warming, plastic pollution dead zones and so on.
“The world must know that we have a plan to save the ocean. What is required over the next three years is concerted action in accordance with the UN’s Sustainable Goal 14 to conserve and sustainably use the resources of the ocean.”
Thomson’s remarks coincided with the publication of an eight-year study carried out by German research group Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification group (Bioacid), which found that crustaceans are most at risk as acid seas may prevent them forming shells.
Fiji is presiding over this year’s UN Climate Change Conference being held in Bonn, Germany next month.
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