Canada and its G7 partners acknowledged the need for action to address the impacts that plastic pollution and marine litter, overexploitation of fish stocks, and extreme weather events have on the health and sustainability of the oceans, seas, coastal communities and entire ecosystems.
G7 Environment, Oceans and Energy Ministers concluded their joint meeting on Healthy Oceans, Seas and Resilient Coastal Communities, to support the G7 theme of ‘Working Together on Climate Change, Oceans and Clean Energy’.
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Ministers discussed ways to advance the priorities identified by G7 Leaders in the Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Seas and Resilient Coastal Communities at the Charlevoix Summit in June, in particular around:
Addressing marine plastic pollution through social and technological innovation
G7 Ministers agreed that reducing plastic pollution in our oceans requires urgent action by government and business.
Many of the outreach countries participating in the G7 meeting also stepped up to support the Ocean Plastics Charter, including Jamaica, Kenya, the Republic of Marshall Islands and Norway.
G7 will establish a G7 Innovation Challenge to mitigate marine plastic litter. Canada pledged $20 million in support of the initiative, as well as over $12 million for funding Canadian innovations.
In addition to oceans plastics, one of the biggest threats is ghost fishing gear. Canada will strengthen its domestic and international commitment to address marine litter and has become a signatory to the Global Ghost Gear Initiative. This initiative brings together 80 participants from across 50 organizations that represent governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, the private sector and fishing industries and academia.
Canada will also invest $600,000 in the Marine Pollution Monitoring Program led by Ocean Wise.
Supporting sustainable oceans and fisheries by combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
G7 Leaders discussed building stronger public-private partnerships to address IUU fishing.
Canada emphasized its support for combating IUU fishing by announcing that up to $10 million will be invested to support the development and deployment of satellite-based technologies that can remotely identify and track suspected IUU vessels. An additional investment of up to $1.6 million will develop regional fisheries intelligence sharing for Western Central Pacific countries to share information.
Canada will also support the Global Fishing Watch. This is an international, non-profit organization that promotes healthy, productive and resilient oceans through transparent and effective governance of its marine resources.
Increasing ocean knowledge by expanding global observation efforts as well as sharing scientific data
The G7 Leaders recognised that greater ocean knowledge is needed for the lasting health of our oceans.
Canada will invest up to $5.6 million to support the Argo Ocean Array; a global array of 3,800 free-drifting profiling floats that continuously monitors the international waters and measures the changing ocean temperature and salinity of the upper ocean and makes this data publicly available.
Supporting innovative solutions and financing to develop clean and resilient energy systems in vulnerable coastal communities
G7 Ministers also discussed the vulnerability of coastal communities to extreme weather. Ministers agreed to initiate the G7 Initiative on Earth Observation and Integrated Coastal Zone Management to improve the availability and accessibility of data and services that are critical to understand the current state of the oceans and coasts.
Ministers also agreed that resilient energy systems are important to increase the resiliency of coastal communities, particularly in Small Island Developing States and low-lying vulnerable countries.
For its part, Canada will fund $60 millions to support the expansion of clean energy systems in Small Island Developing States, improve energy access for women, and provide training and employment opportunities for women in non-traditional, sustainable technology sectors.
