ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the oceans-oriented SDG14 in particular. SDG14 aims to ‘conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’ through realization of numerous sustainability targets. The relationship between sustainable development and the oceans is two-way. The oceans are threatened by environmentally unsustainable activities globally leading to ocean pollution, collapse of fisheries, ocean warming, acidification and eutrophication, as noted in several of the chapters in this book. Alternatively, the oceans are vehicles for realizing environmentally sustainable development. Put simply, environmentally sustainable development can help to protect oceans and healthy oceans can help in the achievement of sustainable development. Implementing SDG14 will require proactively addressing the oceanic causes and impacts of global environmental change. Doing this is difficult due to gaps in marine environmental governance and a shortage of capacity – technology, funding and so forth – in many of the countries that are most reliant on successful implementation of SDG14.
