Taskforce on Ocean Governance

Climate Change

Global climate change is a major long-term threat to the oceans; impacts include sea-level rise and increases in coastal erosion, temperature increases and related problems like coral bleaching and shifts in species distribution, ocean oxygen depletion and carbon dioxide saturation, which leads to ocean acidification, and increased frequency and intensity of anomalous climate and weather events. These and other climate change effects are expected to adversely affect the provision of critical ecosystem goods and services (such as fisheries, tourism, and coastal protection). Climate change is also expected to compound existing problems including overfishing, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation. Significantly, climate change effects on the oceans have serious social, economic and political implications. They comprise a remarkable governance challenge requiring innovative and adaptive institutions to enable actors to respond and adapt to a changing climate. Members of this cluster study both the socioeconomic impacts of climate change and the ways that people mitigate or adapt to these effects through governance. Due to the scope of the issue, there are many close connections between this cluster and all of the 19 other ESG-Oceans Cluster Themes.  We are also supportive of interdisciplinary work, including socioecological systems or coupled human and natural systems research that brings together social and natural scientists to study climate impacts and adaptation holistically.

If you’d like to join the cluster, please click here to become a member. This will allow you to post information on the page and give you the opportunity to receive information and updates via the Oceans Taskforce listserve.

While we do not have funding ourselves, we do hope to foster joint projects via Working Groups, which would bring together cluster members to write grant proposals, put together collected volumes/special issues, or develop webinars, workshops, syllabi, or similar products. All projects should focus on the cluster topic and fit within the ESG Science Plan (http://www.earthsystemgovernance.org/research-agenda/). Working group members should come from more than one institution and should have sufficient expertise to accomplish project goals. Forming a working group can help you to expand your professional network. It will also provide mentoring from the cluster leaders and access to logistical support like web-conferencing from ESG headquarters. To submit a Working Group proposal, please fill out this form and send it to the cluster leader(s) listed below. If you’d like to propose a Working Group that fits in more than one cluster, please send it to the leaders of each cluster in a single e-mail. Scroll down for descriptions of active Working Groups.

Cluster Leaders:

Pedro Fidelman
University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
contact@pedrofidelman.com

DG Webster
Dartmouth, USA
d.g.webster@dartmouth.edu

Alessandra Conversi
National Research Council, Italy
a.conversi@ismar.cnr.it

 

Active Working Groups: