The UN climate conference at Copenhagen in December 2009 was the largest and most important meeting on climate change in the last 10 years. It was disappointing that more progress was not made, but agreement was reached on the need to tackle climate change at a global level.
Dramatic temperature rises have been having a major impact on the marine environment and the many unique species and communities that depend on it. Ice cover in the Arctic is already less than half what it was when records began, and within ten years could almost be gone in the summer months.
The melting sea ice leaves many lucrative but potentially destructive opportunities for government and business. These include new fishing grounds, a shorter shipping route between the Pacific Ocean and Europe and major new drilling fields for petroleum. These activities need to be sustainably managed to minimise risk to the environment and the long term economy.
To prevent average world temperatures rising 2°C or more beyond pre-industrial levels, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak within 10 years and then fall at least 80% by 2050.
