'Now is the time for meaningful action' on climate crisis, warns Gore

 All eyes were on Ireland’s plans for Marine Protected Areas on World Ocean Day as the Fair Seas inaugural conference took place in Cork. On the Celtic Mist are Rohan Fleury, Eamon Whitty,  and Alissa Fleury with Rohan Fleury and Aoife O'Mahony, Fair Seas Campaign Manager. Picture: Clare Keogh

This decade is the most decisive in the twin climate and biodiversity crises facing humanity, according to former US vice president Al Gore.

The noted climate change campaigner, who served as Bill Clinton's vice president from 1992 to 2000 and narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W Bush, told the Fair Seas World Ocean Day conference at Cork City Hall that Ireland is at the forefront of managing and protecting marine life.

"With 10 times more of your national territory at sea surrounding Ireland than the territory you actually have on the land itself, obviously Ireland has an outsize need to protect and steward the health of your surrounding waters.

"The commitment Ireland has made to protect 30% of its waters by 2030 mirrors Ireland's outstanding leadership on environmental protection, and in the efforts to solve the climate crisis, but now is the time to transform the words and pledges and promises into meaningful action.

"The seas surrounding Ireland helped to sustain the Irish people for thousands of years. But in order for them to continue supporting the Irish people, these seas need to not only be protected but also managed in a sustainable way," Mr Gore told the conference via video link.

The inaugural Fair Seas conference heard how three-quarters of Irish people believe the Government should prioritise fully protecting valuable marine ecosystems. The Fair Seas coalition is made up of groups such as the Irish Wildlife Trust, Birdwatch Ireland, Coastwatch, and Friends of the Irish Environment.

'Open sewer'

Mr Gore said that the world is at an inflection point.

"We are at an important inflection point in our fight against the twin crises, the biodiversity crisis, and the climate crisis. Indeed, both of these crises are inextricably linked to one another.

Former US Vice President Al Gore:  'The seas surrounding Ireland helped to sustain the Irish people for thousands of years.'

"Every day we're continuing to pump 162 million tons of global warming pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, into the atmosphere, as if the atmosphere was an open sewer," he said.

Extreme weather is the consequence of global warming, with biblical scenes like in the Book of Revelation now coming to pass, he added.

Elsewhere at the conference, various experts described Ireland as a "guardian of ocean giants" and a "large ocean state".

'Guardian of ocean giants'

National Geographic’s explorer in residence Sylvia Earle, who was the first female chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US, as well as being a member of the worldwide Ocean Elders conservation group, told the conference in Cork City Hall it is a "crucial time for Ireland" as it prepares legislation to safeguard marine protected areas (MPAs).

"Your beautiful Emerald Isle sits like a jewel in the North Atlantic Ocean, and your enormous maritime area makes you the guardian of ocean giants, rare coral reefs of the deep, and steep staging posts of global important soaring seabird colonies," Dr Earle said.

The marine bill currently going through the Oireachtas aims to cement the country's ambition to protect 30% of its maritime area by the end of the decade. The EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive legally compels member states to establish MPAs.

Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan told the conference the legislation is due to be brought to Cabinet before the Oireachtas summer recess in July.

Keynote speaker, ocean economist Professor Rashid Sumaila from the University of British Columbia, told the conference Ireland should consider itself a "large ocean state" considering the vast seas surrounding its land mass.