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The Commonwealth Blue Charter, the Commonwealth’s flagship programme on ocean cooperation, has been invited to join a leading line-up of official nominators for the prestigious Earthshot Prize.
The Earthshot Prize is an ambitious global environment prize
launched by His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge, that seeks to stimulate innovative solutions to the world’s most urgent
environmental problems while improving living standards, particularly for communities most vulnerable to climate change.
Nominations opened on Sunday for five awards worth £1 million each,
highlighting impactful contributions to the following five goals or “Earthshots”: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-Free World and Fix our Climate.
As one of the Earthshot Prize’s Global Alliance of Partners, the
Commonwealth Blue Charter team will bring its expertise and a global
reach to the search for candidates in at least one of those areas.
Nominees could be individuals, teams or organisations, from a wide range of sectors including public, private and grassroots.
Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, said: “Our
Commonwealth Blue Charter team is extremely honoured to be selected to
become a Global Alliance Partner supporting the pioneering and
inspirational work of The Earthshot Prize.
“The Commonwealth has long been a leading champion of multilateral
cooperation to protect and conserve the natural environment, mobilising
awareness and action on the issue of climate change and pioneering
international cooperation to protect and manage our oceans.
“Through the Commonwealth Blue Charter [2], all 54 of our member
countries make far-reaching commitments to work together proactively on
ocean governance and conservation of marine resources, and to address
ocean-related challenges and implement policies to use the bounty of the
deep in ways which are sustainable.”
The nations of the Commonwealth have jurisdictions covering a third of
the world’s coastal oceans, 42 per cent of coral reefs, and they include
the majority of the world’s small island developing states – more
aptly described as ‘large ocean states’.
Forty-seven of the Commonwealth’s 54 member countries have a
coastline, where many communities rely on the ocean for life and
livelihoods. This brings special awareness of the interdependence and
connectedness of natural ecosystems, both on land and sea.
The Secretary-General continued: “I believe the innovation,
collaboration and drive which the Commonwealth Blue Charter expresses,
align perfectly with the objectives and values of The Earthshot Prize.
We are thrilled by this fresh opportunity to shine the spotlight on the
many imaginative environmental projects and conservation programmes
currently emerging from Commonwealth countries.”
The Earthshot Prize will be awarded every year from 2021 to 2030, for a
decade of action on the environment.
The Commonwealth Blue Charter is an agreement by all 54 Commonwealth
countries adopted at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in
London, April 2018. At the summit, all member states agreed to actively
cooperate to solve ocean-related problems and meet commitments for
sustainable ocean development, with particular emphasis on the UN
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 14 (Life Below
Water).
To achieve this, 10 Action Groups implement the Commonwealth Blue
Charter, led by 13 ‘Champion countries’ that have stepped forward to
coordinate action on 10 key issues they have identified as priorities,
supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Blue Charter Team.
