Joining in the commission’s proposals for a UN “Sustainable Development Goal” for the seas, as well as a UN Special Representative for the ocean and an independent Global Ocean Accountability Board, ICS’ Peter Hinchliffe stated that although the IMO has had a positive influence in shipping’s environmental performance “shipowners are global citizens who will share the GOC’s concern about the vacuum that still exists with respect to wider governance and protection of the oceans.”
A GOC report released yesterday, entitled “From Decline to Recovery: A Rescue Package for the Global Ocean”, argues that industry is causing “Habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, overfishing, pollution, climate change and ocean acidification” and that governance is “woefully inaccurate”.
“Technological advance, combined with a lack of regulation, is widening the gap between rich and poor as those countries that can exploit dwindling resources while those that can’t experience the consequences of those actions,” read the foreword to the report by commission co-chairs José María Figueres, Trevor Manuel and David Miliband. “Regional stability, food security, climate resilience, and our children’s future are all under threat.”
“The GOC’s ideas merit serious consideration,” said the ICS head, praising the IMO’s “successful model” for industry environmental regulation, echoing ICS’ recent condemnation the "unfounded and rather unfair" accusations of sluggishness directed at the body. The model could “no doubt be applied to other ocean activities such as fishing and land based industry.”
“While governments – and industry – may well have legitimate questions about some of the more detailed proposals that have been made by the GOC, its ideas deserve proper analysis and need to be taken seriously,” said Hinchliffe.
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