Blue Planetary Boundaries for Climate Resilience & Sustainable Development

Oceans are currently under increasing threat from both climate change and direct human activities. Degradation of the oceanic environment poses ecological and societal pressures, which in turn feeds back on the use of ecosystems and our climate. There are major co-benefits and trade-offs among the The UN-2030 Sustainable Development (SDG) Goals, with the oceans a critical component that can be linked to multiple objectives including Life under water, Climate Action, Clean Water, No poverty, Reduced Inequalities. Given highly interconnected natural-social systems, how can we advance human development while decreasing pressures on the oceans?

To contribute to this conversation, our objectives are three-fold:

Develop a new integrative, theoretical framework of Oceanic Planetary Boundaries Develop the ocean/coastal component for our new Climate Security Digital Atlas. Use historical (1850 to present) and 21st century projections for productivity, fisheries and socio-economic indicators to discuss fundamental concepts of climate/ocean responsibility and justice