The European Union is pledging €816.5 million to help protect the oceans from the effects of climate change, pollution and unsustainable fishing practices.
At the Our Ocean Conference held in Panama, the EU has committed to 39 actions and is also joining the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Action Alliance.
“This year, louder than ever, we confirm our strong commitment to protect, restore and take care of the ocean with a number of actions worth more than 800 million euros,” said Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries.
“The ocean is part of who we are, and it is our shared responsibility,” he added.
Launched in 2014, Our Ocean Conference has fostered US$108 billion in actions and protected more than five million square miles of ocean. This year’s edition, the eighth, is themed ‘Our Ocean, Our Connection’ and is calling for collaborative global efforts.
The EU’s new commitments include:
- €320 million for ocean research to protect marine biodiversity and address the impacts of climate change.
- €12 million to promote access to data from Copernicus – the earth observation component of the EU’s space programme.
- €250 million to launch a new satellite, Sentinel-1C, to observe ice in the Arctic.
- €126 million to protect biodiversity and fight climate change in Benin, Guyana and Tanzania.
- €24 million from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund to support regional fisheries management organisations and regional fisheries bodies in the fight against IUU fishing.
- €1 million to the WTO funding mechanism on fisheries subsidies to support developing countries.
