ALEX BENKENSTEIN, SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

This article appeared in Outreach, a multi-stakeholder magazine on environment and sustainable development published at COP17. View it here.

Climate change will have significant impacts on the marine and freshwater systems that support the world’s fisheries. Indeed, many of these impacts have already been observed in scientific studies, including coral bleaching, ocean acidification and changes to the range of fish stocks in response to warmer ocean temperatures. In addition to these direct ecosystem impacts, fishing fleets and communities will face an increased risk of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, coastal erosion and other climate-related effects.