On the first day of the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), France and Brazil launched a landmark international initiative to dramatically scale up ocean-focused climate action. The Blue Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Challenge calls on all countries to place the ocean at the heart of their climate plans ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), which Brazil will host in November this year.
Alongside Brazil and France, an inaugural group of eight countries — Australia, Fiji, Kenya, Mexico, Palau, and Seychelles — has already joined the initiative, committing to include the ocean in their updated climate plans under the Paris Agreement.
These plans represent the centrepiece of each country’s efforts to reduce emissions and limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and build resilience, and represent the highest level of political will under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The initiative is supported by Ocean Conservancy, the Ocean and Climate Platform and the World Resources Institute through the Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance (ORCA) and has been endorsed by WWF-Brazil.
