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A working group of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity today issued its draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which includes action targets to protect at least 30% of the world’s ocean and land by 2030, with at least 10% under “strict protection” and to increase by at least 50% the world’s ocean and land that is under […]

The Northeast Regional Ocean Council today held its Fall 2019 meeting in Portsmouth, NH. The agenda included updates on NROC’s funding status, tribal engagement, activities and opportunities for collaboration from representatives of NROC’s Committees on Ocean Planning, Coastal Hazards Resilience, and Ocean and Coastal Ecosystem Health, highlights and opportunities for collaboration from representatives of the Northeast Regional Association

The OSPAR Commission’s group on the protection of species and habitats convened in Madrid on Dec. 2-5 to address ways to more effectively protect species and habitats that are threatened and/or declining and to consider several new scoping studies regarding seamounts as biodiversity hotspots in the deep sea and threats to sea turtles in the OSPAR maritime area.  OSPAR

NOAA today announced the release of the agency’s 14th annual Arctic Report Card, which finds that Arctic ecosystems and communities “are increasingly at risk due to continued warming and declining sea ice.” The report card addresses areas including surface air and sea surface temperature, terrestrial snow cover, Greenland ice sheet, sea ice, Arctic ocean primary productivity, tundra greenness,

In an effort designed to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, the European Commission today presented the “European Green Deal” that includes actions to “boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy and stop climate change, revert biodiversity loss and cut pollution.” Among other things, the European Commission says that

The West Coast Ocean Alliance today held its annual meeting in Tacoma, WA.  Presentation slides are accessible here.  The West Coast Ocean Alliance is a regional ocean partnership, whose predecessors include the West Coast Ocean Partnership, West Coast Governors Alliance on Ocean Health, and West Coast Governors Agreement on Ocean Health. Meeting agenda items included the following, with a detailed

Following the UN Intergovernmental Conference’s (Conference) summer release of draft agreement text for an international legally binding instrument under the Law of the Sea Convention regarding the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, the Conference last Wednesday issued revised draft agreement text.  At the conclusion of the third conference in August, the President of the

The Ocean Policy Committee — created by the June 2018 Executive Order establishing a new ocean policy — today issued a summary of the Nov. 14 White House Summit on Partnerships in Ocean Science and Technology. The Summit, hosted by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality, brought representatives from the federal government,

The Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC) recently announced the release of a draft agenda for its Fall 2019 meeting in Portsmouth, NH on Monday, Dec. 16. Agenda items include updates from the Ocean Planning, Coastal Hazards Resilience, and Ocean and Coastal Ecosystem Health Committees, updates and discussion on offshore wind planning and implementation in the Northeast, updates on NROC’s

In a Memorandum issued today, President Trump declared it U.S. policy to “act boldly to safeguard our future prosperity, health, and national security through ocean mapping, exploration, and characterization” and to “support the conservation, management, and balanced used of America’s oceans by exploring, mapping, and characterizing the U.S. [Exclusive Economic Zone], including mapping the Arctic and Sub-Arctic