The European Union and five other countries have joined the Friends of the Ocean and Climate group.

The European Union and five other countries have joined the Friends of the Ocean and Climate group, which already included Portugal, which wants the ocean to be placed at the center of the climate change debate.

The announcement was made on Saturday evening after an informal high-level dinner co-hosted by Portugal, Germany, Canada, Fiji and four organizations, including the United Nations Foundation and the Oceano Azul Foundation, on the sidelines of the 28th UN Conference. United Nations Climate Change (COP28).

In addition to the European Union, Mexico, Ghana, Palau and South Korea also joined the group.

“The ocean must be included in the Global Stocktake (the main mechanism by which progress under the Paris Agreement is assessed) at COP28,” European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius was quoted as saying in the statement. , emphasizing that “ambitious action to achieve carbon neutrality is critical to preserving the natural function of blue carbon.”

This was also the theme of the Friends of the Ocean and Climate dinner held in Dubai on Saturday on the sidelines of COP28, which brought together ministers from the group’s various countries and members of non-governmental organizations into the same space.

The countries’ aim is to place the ocean at the center of discussions at climate summits and, in the case of COP28, where the first global assessment of the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015 is taking place, to call for the inclusion of specific ocean-related measures as a contribution determined at the national level.

“We must do more in terms of reinvigorating the ocean agenda,” defended the Portuguese Minister for Environment and Climate in his speech at the start of the dinner, stressing that climate change, the biodiversity crisis and pollution go hand in hand and these relationships must be recognized and reflected in the outcome of the summit.

“The global analysis will identify the shortcomings of the Paris Agreement and provide recommendations,” he added, recognizing that this is an opportunity to present solutions based on nature and, above all, the ocean.

COP28 began on November 30 and will run until November 12 in Dubai. One of the main events of the summit is the implementation of the first global assessment of the Paris Agreement, which in 2015 set as goals the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the rise in global temperatures to more than 2 degrees above. pre-industrial values ​​and it is desirable that they do not exceed 1.5 ºC.