To confront the challenges of climate change, we must look to the ocean as a source of climate solutions. Our ocean offers many options to help communities mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, while also protecting biodiversity, sustaining productive coastal economies, and building resilient communities and ecosystems.

Photo credit: Jack Fishman

In addition to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, scientists are studying ways in which we can remove and store the excess carbon dioxide already in our atmosphere. Marine protected areas, including national marine sanctuaries and marine national monuments protect habitats like seagrass beds, mangroves, saltmarshes, and kelp forests, that act as blue carbon sinks by removing atmospheric carbon and storing it in marine plants and sediments.

With many of these environments under threat due to climate change, urban development, and other stressors, protecting these places means protecting people and our planet. Conserving these ecosystems also has the added benefits of safeguarding coastal communities from flooding and storms, conserving the diversity of life on our planet, and reducing non-climate stressors to support ecosystem resilience.

Recent historic investments in our nation’s natural infrastructure, like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, awarded $562 million in funding in nearly 150 projects across 30 coastal and Great Lakes states and territories, including in several national marine sanctuaries and monuments. These investments provide transformative opportunities to maximize win-win solutions to build climate resilience, learn from and bolster tribal and indigenous-led conservation and restoration, leverage public-private partnerships, and develop a diverse and inclusive workforce.

During Capitol Hill Ocean Week 2023, the “Building Resilience Through Ocean-Based Climate Solutions” plenary session will address innovative and equitable restoration and conservation for both mitigation and adaptation and explore market-based and financing models for investment.

Join us for the “Building Resilience Through Ocean-Based Climate Solutions,” sponsored by The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, for this discussion. Sean Cosgrove (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) will offer opening remarks, and the panel will be moderated by Betsy López-Wagner (López-Wagner Strategies and a member of NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Business Advisory Council). The panel features Violet Sage Walker (Northern Chumash Tribal Council), Lola Fatoyinbo (NASA and National Geographic Explorer), Sol Kaho’ohalahala (seventh-generation Native Hawaiian descendant, kupaaina), and Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš (Azul).

Mark your calendars for Thursday, June 8th from 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM EST and register to join the conversation during Capitol Hill Ocean Week.

Register for CHOW!