Project description
Area-based climate actions for a sustainable Antarctica
Marine spatial planning (MSP) initiatives worldwide aim to bolster ocean sustainability. However, most MSP initiatives fail to explicitly consider climate change. Antarctica stands out as the only ocean basin globally without MSP under development. Developing sustainable MSP for Antarctica is crucial, given its rapid changes and potential global repercussions. MSP designed with climate objectives can yield significant benefits while necessitating few trade-offs. Nevertheless, political, social and economic factors constrain the effectiveness of such endeavours. In this context, the ERC-funded PLAnT project will assess social-ecological vulnerabilities, develop future scenarios, promote area-based climate action and advocate for a paradigm shift in sustainable planning strategies. While solutions may vary depending on the context, the project will inspire nations worldwide to chart pathways for supporting ocean sustainability.
Objective
Planning of marine areas is being developed worldwide to support ocean sustainability. However, few existing marine spatial planning (MSP) initiatives consider climate change explicitly. This is a critical oversight in a rapidly changing world.
At the same time, no formal MSP initiatives are envisioned for Antarctica; it is the only ocean basin globally without MSP under development. Antarctica is changing rapidly with potential repercussions around the planet, particularly for sea-level rise, climate regulation, and marine ecosystems functioning. Developing integrated, sustainable MSP for Antarctica is now more fundamental than ever.
Excluding climate effects from MSP will lead to plans that are maladaptive and inefficient in sustaining marine ecosystems and their use under change. By contrast, if designed with climate objectives, MSP can provide substantial benefits while requiring few trade-offs. Efforts must be thus put together to effectively move towards climate-smart MSP in Antarctica and globally.
Yet, contextual idiosyncrasies (political, social, economic) limit the effectiveness of such efforts. Understanding what challenges hinder the development of climate-smart MSP, in Antarctica and globally, and pointing ways to overcome such challenges is key. PLAnT will take up, for the very first time, such critical task. It will assess social-ecological vulnerabilities; build future scenarios; support area-based climate action and dynamic solutions; conduct governance analyses; and foster a paradigm shift on how to plan for sustainability and equity under change.
Research on complex social-ecological systems rarely leads to one-size solutions, and there is a risk that solutions identified in PLAnT are context specific. Still, PLAnT will inspire nations worldwide to finding pathways and solutions to support ocean sustainability. At a time when the latter is firmly established in the international agenda, taking a leap forward on this topic is ground-breaking.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencessociologygovernance
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanets
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
1749-016 Lisboa
Portugal