Brazil and France have just launched a new challenge to countries to put oceans at the centre of climate action.<\/p>\n
On Monday, at the UN Ocean Conference<\/strong><\/a>, the two countries called on all nations to place ocean-focused action at the heart of their national climate plans – also known as Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs<\/strong><\/a> – ahead of the UN climate summit COP30 it is hosting in November.<\/p>\n Alongside Brazil and France, an inaugural group of eight countries, including Australia, Fiji, Kenya, Mexico, Palau, and the Republic of Seychelles, has joined the initiative.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Brazil, the Blue NDC Challenge represents a key opportunity to strengthen ocean-related climate action and to emphasise the essential role of ocean-based solutions in achieving emission reduction targets,\u201d says Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change.<\/p>\n Related<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThrough this initiative, Brazil seeks to advance international cooperation on ocean climate action in the lead-up to COP30, and to underscore the need for all countries to fully integrate the ocean into their national climate strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n Silva added that in its most recently submitted NDC, Brazil had explicitly included ocean-based climate actions for the first time. That includes commitments like establishing programmes for the conservation and restoration of vital marine ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n 40 per cent of Brazil\u2019s territory is located at sea, and it hosts marine ecosystems of global significance – including the only coral reefs in the South Atlantic and the world’s largest contiguous mangrove belt along the Amazon coast.<\/p>\n Oceans-based actions are vital for wider climate goals<\/p>\n NDCs are the centrepiece of countries’ efforts to reduce emissions and limit warming to 1.5\u00b0C under the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n Countries remain largely off track for meeting the Paris goals, according to the most recent UN emissions gap report, with the next round of climate pledges needing to deliver a \u201cquantum leap in ambition\u201d to give the world a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5\u00b0C.<\/p>\n Nations were due to submit updated plans in February, but only 11 of the 195 Paris Agreement signatories made the formal deadline<\/strong><\/a>. As of early June, just 22 countries have so far delivered their enhanced NDCs.<\/p>\n Brazil is one of only five G20 countries that have submitted updated plans alongside the US under the Biden administration, the UK, Japan and Canada. The real deadline is now September, when the plans will be tallied up before COP30.<\/p>\n