Thank you for inviting me to speak at this important event
My appreciation to His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco for your continued leadership on this important topic.
Thanks also to Jamie Isbister, Australia’s Ambassador for the Environment; Minna Epps from IUCN and to scientists Dr. David Souter Dr. Serge Planes, for driving this critical scientific piece on the status of coral reefs.
It is a pleasure to be here today. Surrounded, if virtually, by former colleagues and continued collaborators. However, it is not a great pleasure to be again talking about the decline of coral reefs, which the IUCN has been flagging for years.
Most of us don’t get to see coral reefs. But out of sight can’t be out of mind for such important ecosystems.
While coral reefs cover less than one per cent of the ocean, they serve as home to a quarter of marine life – living in symbiotic relationships honed by millions of years of evolution. For humanity, they provide food, medicines, protection from storms, recreation and inspiration.
Unfortunately, according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, 14 per cent of the coral from the world’s reefs disappeared between 2009 and 2018. Coral building species are disappearing the fastest, due to climate change.
Last month’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report told us that climate change is intensifying, fast. This is a disaster for coral reefs, as 2020 research from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found. Coral reefs are projected to decline to up to 30 per cent of former cover at 1.5°C warming. At 2°C warming, only one per cent of reefs will remain. We are talking no less than de-facto extinction.
Such statistics make it clear why success in the Paris Agreement is non-negotiable: not just in reducing emissions, but in adapting to existing and growing impacts.
Friends, as the world gets to work dealing with climate change, we need to keep a close eye on coral reefs.
Monitoring of status and trends is crucial to understand change, inform responses and track progress in protection goals. High-quality data supports research and modelling to predict coral reef responses to climate stress, and the likely success of management actions. For example, this report brings hope by identifying those reefs that seem to be more resilient and might hold the key to survival: so-called climate refugia.
Such science can help to deliver and direct the necessary funding for reefs.
There is already a clear case for increased investment in coral reefs. Coral reefs provide society with resources and services of about USD 375 billion per year. Investing in coral reefs to prevent decline could net USD 37 billion for Indonesia and USD 35 billion for the Mesoamerican Reef by 2030. We need to understand that between 2010 and 2016, only USD 1.9 billion was committed to the conservation and sustainable management of tropical reefs and associated mangroves and seagrasses. The Global Fund for Coral Reefs and similar initiatives provide an opportunity to close this investment gap, including attracting blended public and private finance. Again though, we need monitoring to know where to spend this money.
The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network is therefore a critical scientific resource.
Aside from identifying funding opportunities, the work of the network provides baselines and opportunities to track progress in, for example, the UN Decade on Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
The work of the network is particularly important to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework because it reflects the scientific leaps and bounds that enable us to identify, monitor, report and adjust benchmarks. This will increase the chances of delivering on the clear and ambitious targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, once agreed.
Friends, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network is the only network to monitor the status of coral reefs at the global level. If the international community supports and strengthens this network, we will increase our chances of ensuring the survival of the world’s crucial, and beautiful, coral reef ecosystems. And this is what we all want.
Thank you.
Executive Director
