14. Life below water
The world’s oceans – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind. Our rainwater, drinking water, weather, climate, coastlines, much of our food, and even the oxygen in the air we breathe, are all ultimately provided and regulated by the sea. Throughout history, oceans and seas have been vital conduits for trade and transportation. Careful management of this essential global resource is a key feature of a sustainable future.
Read our stories to learn more about SDG Goal 14: Life below water
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Nearly half of Indonesia’s peatlands are vulnerable to flooding due to degradation from exploitation, with 6 million hectares (15 million acres) – twice the size of Belgium – highly at risk.
Polisi & Kewangan
Ways to improve Malaysia’s ecological fiscal transfers
Increasing allocations and giving states more freedom on how they can spend EFT funds could make this mechanism more effective, say conservationists. Malaysia's environmental sustainability minister Nik Nazmi also agrees there is a good basis to make the scheme more permanent, but in-depth discussions must be held with the states, he told Eco-Business.
Sustainable tourism discourages illegal mangrove cutting and fishing in the Philippines' largest contiguous mangrove forest.
Karbon & Cuaca
Bright spots in the dark: Tracking Malaysia’s fiscal transfers for nature conservation
The federal government says the Ecological Fiscal Transfer (EFT) approach has spurred state governments to expand protected areas and run more conservation programmes. Yet as environmentalists are calling for more EFT funding, our latest analysis finds little transparency on most of the money disbursed, despite some state-level data from Johor and Sabah.
Polisi & Kewangan
Seabed authority raises concern over unilateral actions by mining firm
Pengangkutan
How ‘scrubbers’ became a huge ocean problem
Pendapat
There are worries the construction of a hydropower dam across the transboundary Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet will intensify both water scarcity and flooding. These smaller-sized river basins are often neglected in academic research.
Polisi & Kewangan
Shake it up, don’t shoot it down: the case for reforming US aid
Targeted and cost-effective foreign aid reforms can amplify America’s global influence and safeguard national interests, says non-profit chief.
Karbon & Cuaca
Nature needs its own ID
Much like personal identification documents enable citizens to exercise their rights and receive government benefits, a digital nature ID could help establish essential environmental metrics to account for ecosystem services.
Polisi & Kewangan
It’s time for a UN ‘universal declaration on nature’
The ‘rights of nature’ is an allied approach, but nature needs something with more and broader teeth, that can elicit a moral and political consensus on the need for nature conservation.
Polisi & Kewangan
‘No-Go’ mining zones can protect nature as renewable energy surges
Video
The vessel will scour Southeast Asia’s marine environment to gather data and support local conservationists.
Gaya Hidup
Can the music industry ever reach net zero?
Eksklusif
Jack Johnson says yes, but it is a long road ahead. In this exclusive interview, we ask the American singer-songwriter and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador about his hopes for the state of the world and how music plays a role in providing a dose of optimism in dark times.
Launched as policymakers lock horns with petrochemicals lobbyists over a treaty to end plastic pollution, the documentary produced by Eco-Business asks why opportunities to solve humanity's waste crisis are being wasted. It will premiere in Singapore and screen on the sidelines of the upcoming COP28 climate summit.
Do children ask the toughest questions? This World Oceans Day, we get renowned oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle, founder of Mission Blue, to field questions from curious kids on the mysteries of the deep.
Audio
The chief executive of World Resources Institute also told the Eco-Business Podcast that the gutting of USAID is less of a concern than how to unlock private capital for climate and nature in developing countries.
Studio EB
Plastic waste is flooding the planet. Instead of waiting for regulation to drive change, give value to recyclables and mobilise the people, says Plastic Bank.
Goumbook launched a regional oceans network that brought discussions on the blue economy to the forefront at the last COP summit. Founder Tatiana Abella tells the Eco-Business Podcast why healthy oceans are important for the Middle East.
Karbon & Cuaca
‘A 1.1°C warmer world is already a matter of life and death’: Climate scientist Winston Chow
The Singapore scientist, recently elected to the UN's top climate body, tells the Eco-Business Podcast about the precarious state of climate adaptation in developing Asia. The region is not well-prepared to manage the cascading risks of extreme climate events, he says.
