The IAEA Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre Capacity Building Program: Empowering Member States to Address and Minimize the Impacts of Ocean Acidification

Abstract

Ocean acidification (OA) is broadly recognized as a major problem for marine ecosystems worldwide, with follow-on effects to the economies of ocean-dependent communities. The urgent need to mitigate and minimize the impacts of OA is a scientific and political priority, as highlighted by the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (IPCC, 2022) and by the inclusion of OA as a target in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In addition, over 20 years of strong scientific evidence on the impacts of OA provides compelling arguments for urgent CO2 mitigation. Reducing CO2 emissions will require ambitious regulatory and economic instruments, as well as effective systemic changes across governments and societies. It is critical to implement adaptation measures to minimize the impact of OA, among other key environmental stressors, as the mitigation process takes time, and the impacts of OA are already felt globally. Assessing the impacts of solutions and their potential implementations requires information at local scales, considering the variabilities in marine ecosystem responses to OA (e.g., local adaptation, species redundancies).

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