The Portuguese government is fully committed to the protection and sustainable use of the oceans, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told while addressing the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York last week. 

He said that one of his government’s main strategic priorities was fulfilling the goals of the international 2030 Agenda designed to reinforce action regarding ocean protection and sustainability. Portugal is set to bring forward by four years the 2030 target set by the United Nations for 30% of protected areas. This announcement was made by the former prime minister, António Costa, in October last year during the 2nd Sustainable Blue Investment Forum in Estoril, Lisbon.

The findings of a recent UNESCO report reveal that increasing temperatures account for 40% of sea level rises. The rate of rising has doubled over the past 20 years. Last year saw one of the highest rises since the 1950s. This is most concerning for low-lying islands and parts of coastal cities, towns, and villages worldwide. Since the 1960s, the oceans have lost a significant amount of oxygen due to warming, and to pollutants such as toxic wastewater, and runoff agricultural chemicals.

Conserving diversity of life on Earth and the oceans is critical to human welfare, yet essential resources are at risk from the direct result of unsustainable practices.

Marine trash includes all manufactured products, especially plastics. Human debris has reportedly impacted at least 700 marine species, from vegetation, plankton and invertebrates, to fish, whales and sea birds. Marine habit loss is causing the extinction of many species.

Oceans are said to play an integral role in climate change mitigation by absorbing some 23% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, and more than 90% of the excess heat created by human-made greenhouse gasses.

Portugal has just strongly reaffirmed its important early role in international ocean governance by integrating at the top executive and United Nations levels.

This is in line with the Global Ocean Forum’s (GOF) recently unveiled 2024-2030 plan designed “to guide the organization’s alignment with major global environmental frameworks. “As the oceans are a holistic ecosystem, joint efforts on a global scale are required, bearing in mind new priorities and areas of focus.

A clear warning from all the relevant international organizations is that the oceans are the life support system of our planet, and the way we treat them will have repercussions on all forms of life in the years to come.

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Len Port, born in Northern Ireland, worked as a news reporter and correspondent, mainly in Hong Kong and South Africa, before moving to Portugal many years ago.