The worldʻs oceans are our lifeblood. They supply roughly half of the oxygen we breathe, serve as a key food source to more than three billion people, and support a ”blue” economy estimated to be worth more than $1.5 trillion a year. The World Bank asserts that healthy seas are critical to inclusiveness and poverty reduction, and are central to achieving the UNʻs 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

And yet, marine ecosystems are increasingly under threat from overfishing, toxic chemicals, and plastic waste. In the last half century, half of the marine population has disappeared, and large fish, including tuna and swordfish, have declined an astonishing ninety percent. Oceans play a key role in regulating and stabilizing the global climate, and as Earthʻs temperature rises, the oceans are absorbing more heat, which will alter climate patterns around the world. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide are making seawater more acidic, harming coral reefs and shellfish and altering the oceanʻs biodiversity. 

In his keynote to the “Our Ocean Conference” in June 2023, former U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry noted that “you can’t solve the problem of the ocean without dealing with the climate – after all, it is the heat and greenhouse gas pollution that is affecting it — and you can’t solve the problem of the climate without dealing with the ocean because it is the great climate regulator.” More than 100 countries have committed to a goal to protect at least thirty percent of Earthʻs oceans by 2030, and the Transatlantic Climate Alliance supports this and other efforts to reverse biodiversity loss, enhance climate resilience, and promote a sustainable ocean economy.