The Environmental Audit Committee launches a new inquiry on the future of our seas – examining how they be protected from climate change, acidification, overfishing and pollution, and how the Government can create a sustainable blue economy.  Inquiry: Sustainable seas 

Chair’s comments

Mary Creagh MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said:

“We have only one ocean, and we all have a duty to care for it. The ocean plays a critical role in the daily lives of billions of people who live by it and whose livelihoods depend on it. Today it is suffering from pollution and plastic waste, climate change and acidification, as well as growing demands on its resources.  “Our inquiry will shine a spotlight on the threats to our ocean, and ask what more the Government could be doing to protect it. We will look at emerging marine industries, and how the Government can build a sustainable ‘blue’ economy.”

Growing global resilience   In the years ahead there will be a growing global reliance on the sea for resources, driven by population growth, and facilitated by innovations in aquaculture and seabed mining.

Climate change and acidification threaten the future of marine life, and the communities which depend on the ocean. Pollution, including plastic pollution, is a growing threat to marine wildlife.

Marine industries can compound the damaging effects of global environmental problems like climate change, pollution and ocean acidification.

Intergovernmental Conference

Healthy marine habitats and biodiversity provides us with goods and services essential to life on earth, including food, raw materials, leisure and recreation, carbon and nutrient cycling, and climate regulation.

The value to the UK of marine biodiversity has been estimated to be in the trillions of pounds. In September, the United Nations will begin an Intergovernmental Conference on conserving marine biodiversity under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Click here to read more