The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: A governing framework for ocean acidification?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12321
• Date: 01 July 2020
• Author: Ellycia R. Harrould‐Kolieb
• Published date: 01 July 2020

RECIEL. 2020;29:257–270. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel  

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  257© 2020 John Wile y & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION

Since the Indus trial Revolution t he ocean has abso rbed close to

30 percent of all ant hropogenic emis sions of ca rbon dioxide (CO2).1

While thi s has had a n ameliorative effect on global warming and its

subsequent impacts, it is als o changing the chemistr y of the ocean,

making it more acidic. Th is process is known as ocean acidificati on

and is expec ted to have wide-ranging ramifications for marine so-

cio-ecological systems.2 Impact s are expected to include, b ut are not

1 Intergovern mental Panel o n Climate Change ( IPCC), IPCC Speci al Report on th e Ocean

and Cryosph ere in a Changing C limate (IPCC 2019).

2 JP Gattuso e t al, ‘Contrast ing Futures for O cean and Societ y from Differ ent

Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions Sce narios’ (2015) 349 S cience 45; JM Guin otte and VJ

Fabry, ‘Ocean Ac idificatio n and its Potenti al Effects on M arine Ecosyste ms’ (2008) 1134

Annals of the N ew York Academy of Sci ences 320; BP Har vey, D Gwynn-Jones a nd PJ

Moore, ‘Met a-analysis Reve als Complex Ma rine Biologic al Responses to t he Interacti ve

Effects of O cean Acidific ation and Warmi ng’ (2013) 3 Ecolog y and Evolution 1016; O

Hoegh-Gul dberg et al, ‘Im pacts of 1.5C G lobal Warming o n Natural and Hum an Systems’

in V Masson-De lmotte et al (eds), Global Warming of 1.5°C (IPCC 2018); K J Kroeker et al,

‘Impact s of Ocean Acidificati on on Marine Organism s: Quantifying Se nsitivities and

Interacti on with Warming ’ (2013) 19 Global Cha nge Biology 188 4.

Received: 18 July 2 019 

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  Revised: 19 Decembe r 2019 

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  Accepted: 21 Januar y 2020

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12321

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: A governing

framework for ocean acidification?

Ellycia R. Harrould-Kolieb

Universit y of Melbourne Facult y of Science,

Victoria, Australia

Correspondence

Email: ellycia.harrould@unimelb.edu.au

Funding information

Australian Government Research Training

Program (RTP) Scholarship

Ocean acidificati on is a major emergent threat to the ocean, its wildlife and t he goods

and services they provide. While the inter national community has committed to ‘mini-

mize and ad dress’ ocean acidific ation as part of the Sustainable Development Goals,

it is un clear how this is to be fulfi lled, especially a s there are no international agree -

ments explicitly design ed to t ackle this issue. Ocean acidification is of relev ance to

the work of several global agreements and makes achieving their goals more difficult.

Being largely sectoral, these agreeme nts are restricted in their ability to address ocean

acidification holis tically, often unable to both minimize and address the issue. This has

resulted in a very limited response to ocean ac idification that is frag mented across

a num ber of re gimes. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

(UNCLOS) has been identi fied as an agreement that could be us ed to regulate carbon

dioxide emissions and thus mitigate ocean acidification. However, this article argues

that a far more pivotal role ca n be played by UNCLOS, t hrough its creation of a gov-

ernin g framewor k for ocean ac idificat ion. UNCLOS is the one Conve ntion with a man-

date broad enough to address ocean acidification in a direct, holistic manner. UNCLOS

places a d uty on States to both minimize and a ddress ocean acidific ation through its

various provisions that p ertain to the protection and pre servation of the marine envi-

ronment and the conser vation of marine living resources. The Convention est ablishes

the framework through which ocean governan ce is to be implemented, wh ich should

be understoo d as extending to ocean acidification. Thus, UN CLOS is uniquely placed

to guide a coherent internatio nal response.