SINGAPORE - In a geopolitically fragmented world, safeguarding the health of oceans is a concern for all people, and one in which multilateral cooperation still matters, said World Economic Forum president Borge Brende.

“The oceans belong to everyone... if you pollute your part of the ocean, it also has impact on others. It’s transboundary in many ways, so maybe the oceans could be a good way to show that multilateral cooperation still matters,” he added.

Mr Brende was speaking to The Straits Times on April 17 on the sidelines of Ecosperity Week, a sustainability conference convened by Singapore’s investment company Temasek.

“We are not in a recession. The economy is still growing, and trade is also growing,” he said, adding that the world has managed to avoid an economic recession.

International Monetary Fund forecasts made on April 16 showed that global growth rates, estimated at 3.2 per cent in 2023, are projected to continue at the same pace in 2024 and 2025.

“On the geopolitics, though, it does not look as good. We are seeing more fragmentation and fracture. You could say we avoided an economic recession, but instead we have a geopolitical recession,” Mr Brende said.

But ocean issues have become more prominent at multilateral events, he noted, pointing to the United Nations climate change conference COP27 in 2022, which featured the first Ocean Pavilion.

Pavilions, which are situated outside negotiating rooms at the UN climate conferences, serve as hubs where conference delegates – including policymakers, civil society members, academics and business representatives from across the world – can gather to discuss various issues.

At the Ocean Pavilion at COP27 and at COP28, held in December 2023, discussions had highlighted the role of the oceans in putting the brakes on climate change, and the importance of safeguarding marine resources in the face of threats such as overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, climate change and other human activities.

Other UN agreements, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and treaties adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), have also helped to elevate national consciousness on the importance of safeguarding the health of oceans, Mr Brende said.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – considered by some to be the biodiversity equivalent of the Paris Agreement on climate change – sits under the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity. It was adopted by almost 200 countries in December 2022.

The framework, which aims to halt and reverse the loss of nature – on which people rely for food, medicine, energy, clean air and water, and for recreation and culture – included a target to protect 30 per cent of the world’s lands and seas by 2030.

As for the IMO, it is “quite a well-functioning multilateral body” that has frameworks, including for ballast water discharge, which helps reduce ocean pollution, Mr Brende said.

The IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention, which entered into force in 2017, helps to prevent the spread of potentially harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens in ships’ ballast water.

Ship ballast water is taken on board by vessels to maintain stability, but can pose environmental problems when the vessels take in water at one location and discharge it – along with aquatic organisms such as bacteria, or eggs or larvae of various species – at another location. This gives rise to the spread of invasive species, which can cost the global economy US$423 billion (S$575 billion) a year.

Under the IMO’s ballast water convention, ships must manage their ballast water so that aquatic organisms and pathogens are removed or rendered harmless before the water is released at a new location.

Mr Brende also highlighted that there was a business case for the protection of oceans, echoing the sentiments of other panellists at the Ecosperity conference.

Financing for nature was a key theme discussed at the conference.

“I think it’s important to also see that if you invest in the oceans today, you can maybe see a greater yield in the future,” he said, emphasising the need to take a science-based approach to managing marine resources.

Mr Brende added: “I would say that the past few decades have not been great for the oceans, because we have continued to pollute and expose the oceans to environmental risks. Now is the time to agree on exposing the ocean less to environmental risk and invest in the oceans.”

On April 15, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared that the world’s coral reefs are in the midst of a mass bleaching event – the fourth on record and the second in the last decade.

Coral reefs in the US, Australia and western Indonesia have all been affected, NOAA said.

When sea surface temperatures rise, hard corals – the builders of reefs that serve as fish nurseries and ecotourism draws – bleach, which means they expel the photosynthetic algae that live in them.

If deprived of this key source of nutrition for too long, corals could die.

Dr Derek Manzello, NOAA’s coral reef watch coordinator, said: “As the world’s oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent and severe.”

When these events are sufficiently severe or prolonged, they can cause coral mortality, which hurts the people who depend on the coral reefs for their livelihoods, he added.

Mr Brende said: “My recommendation would be to look at the situation today, how we can improve, and explain that to everyone using the oceans. If we take a holistic approach together, reduce some of the negative factors, we can, in fact, harvest more from the oceans in the future.”