The Effects of Climate Change on the World's Oceans conference was held from 3 to 8 June 2018 in Washington, United States.
IDDRI was invited to present the main results of "The Ocean Solutions Initiative" at an expert workshop on the theme "Exploring potential ocean-based solutions to climate change impacts on marine biodiversity and ecosystem services". This workshop brought together some 30 scientists to identify the range of possible solutions, concrete examples of implementation (aquaculture in China, marine spatial planning in the United States, marine protected area in Micronesia), and scientific research needs to support ocean-based mitigation and adaptation policies.
Among the topics discussed, three can be mentioned here.
- First, the need for flexible decision-making systems as a basic condition for the implementation of combinations of solutions that can be adjusted over time, based both on advances in scientific knowledge and the magnitude of the impacts of climate change on marine species and associated ecosystem services;
- Then, the question of how to define combinations of solutions that are both adapted to contextual, environmental and human specificities, and that offers a sufficient level of genericity to support the sharing of experience;
- Finally, the question of the collateral effects of solutions on other components of the system, or on other systems, then referring to the risks of "wrong-attenuation" and "wrong-adaptation".
This workshop will be followed up with a scientific paper defining the needs in terms of scientific research on both data production and governance modes.
