Nature and Biodiversity

Why the ocean is our ally in fighting climate change: experts tell Radio Davos their hopes for COP26 

climate change Man swimming in water. Iceberg in distance.

Lewis Pugh swims in freezing waters off Greeland. Image: © Miguel Booth.

Alexander Court
Marketing Communications Lead, World Economic Forum
This article is part of: Forum COP26 Live
Loading...
  • Radio Davos dives into the frozen waters of the Arctic and sweltering mangrove swamps in Colombia.
  • UN ocean envoy urges action at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow.
  • Mangroves protect coasts from the ravages of climate change, and store vast amounts of carbon by sucking it into the mud below.
  • Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh explains what swimming in icy waters off Greenland has taught him about climate change.
  • Find out more: Friends of Ocean Action
  • Subscribe to the podcast: https://pod.link/1504682164

We all know that trees fight climate change by breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen. But what about the ocean and coastal ecosystems -- how do they impact the climate crisis?

Have you read?

On this episode of Radio Davos we hear from an expert who has spent decades wading into Colombian swamps to extract soil samples from mangrove forests to learn more about carbon sequestration.

Discover

What's the World Economic Forum doing about the ocean?

“In the case of mangroves, sediments can account for between 50 and 90% of the total carbon. That is the difference between mangroves and terrestrial forests,” says María Claudia Díazgranados Cadelo of Conservation International. “When mangroves are destroyed or degraded the carbon stocks that took millennia to accumulate and are located in these sediments, they are released in a matter of years, turning these important carbon sinks Into a significant carbon source.”

Loading...

We also hear from a man who has been swimming in freezing arctic waters since 2003 to shine a spotlight on how global warming is already changing our world.

Loading...


“When I did my first swim in the arctic, the water was 3 degrees centigrade. I went back there 12 years later and the water was no longer 3 degrees, it was 10 degrees centigrade,” says Lewis Pugh. “I've been in the ice for the last 18 years and I'm seeing the changes and I'm feeling them. Every single degree of water temperature which goes up or goes down has a huge difference.”

Loading...

Peter Thomson, the United Nations’ Special Envoy for the Ocean and and Co-Chair of Friends of Ocean Action, calls on global leaders at COP26 to "deliver us from this nightmare".

“From the ocean's perspective, everything is connected. Think of it as one bathtub. So, what's flowing off the Greenland ice sheet is causing a rising sea level in an atoll republic. If you're burning coal to get your electricity, you're contributing to the drowning of an age-old island culture.”

Find all our podcasts here.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

SDG 13: Climate Action

Related topics:
Nature and BiodiversityClimate ActionSustainable Development
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how SDG 13: Climate Action is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

How the Himalayas are being restored through participatory forest management

Aditi Mishra and Ar. Sachin Uniyal

October 31, 2024

Biodiversity declining even faster in 'protected areas', and other nature and climate stories you need to read this week

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum