Ask an expert: Anya Waite on her push for ocean observation at global climate talks

Leaders from around the world are gathering in Glasgow, Scotland, this week to hammer out plans to combat climate change and embrace the increasingly urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

One of the central objectives of COP26, which stands for conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is to nudge the world closer to acceptance and action on keeping global temperature rise to within 1.5C. Observers are also hoping there will be agreement on an end date for the use of “unabated” coal, reducing emissions from methane, ending deforestation by the end of the decade and providing $100 billion in annual climate financing.

Anya Waite, Scientific Director and CEO of the Ocean Frontier Institute at Dalhousie, is attending the meetings, where she will make presentations and press the case for the ocean to be part of the discussion around reaching global carbon targets.


What will you be doing at COP26?

I will be attending COP26 as Co-Chair of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), as an Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission delegate, and also as CEO of the Ocean Frontier Institute. Our goal is to highlight the critical importance of sustained ocean observations in achieving our global climate targets. I’ll be giving presentations in the Plenary and in several side events organized by the UK G7 Co-ordination Centre, the World Meteorological Commission / Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UNFCCC itself, which organized the conference and an event around what’s called the ‘Global Stocktake’ of carbon.

What message are you hoping to send to delegates?

The key message we will be sending is that at present, the ocean is missing (#theoceanismissing) in the conversation about global carbon-based climate targets. The ocean is what we call a “critical carbon sink” — it has absorbed 40 per cent of our fossil fuel emissions over the last 200 years, with the rest ending up in the atmosphere. It takes up more carbon dioxide than all rainforests — in fact more than all land carbon sinks — combined. If this massive ocean carbon absorption does not continue — and there is increasing evidence that it will not — then achieving all our land-based net-zero targets will not achieve our climate goals. So, it is critical to launch a step-change in ocean observation as part of our efforts to reach climate targets.

What is the importance of this latest climate gathering?  

COP26 (Council of Parties #26) in Glasgow marks the five-year anniversary of the landmark Paris agreement, which launched a legally binding international treaty on climate change, limiting global warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius. It is an opportunity for nations to take stock of progress and re-commit to these critical goals.

What are you personally hoping will come out of it?

I hope that Canada will step up and take leadership in an initiative to launch a global exemplar of ocean observation in our own backyard – the North Atlantic, where a full 30 per centof ocean carbon is absorbed.
 
A North Atlantic Carbon Observatory (NACO) could be a catalyst for massive international engagement in carbon observation delivering information on the ocean carbon sinks in near-real time, making it possible for policy makers to adjust their land-based goals accordingly.

It would provide an international exemplar of the necessary scale of action, bringing other ocean nations into a tightly linked alliance. This is part of the reason it’s so important that the Global Ocean Observing System is fully involved. In the end, it’s a problem too big for one nation to tackle and requires international joint action.