Belgium's efforts to integrate the ocean into UN climate negotiations are successful

The ocean plays an extremely important role in the global climate system. That is why the international community set up an Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue to ensure that the ocean plays a more integral part within UN climate negotiations. In 2025 and 2026, our country – represented by our colleague Ulrik Lenaerts – is a co-facilitator of that dialogue. He took us on a tour behind the scenes.

“There is no doubt whatsoever that the ocean is fulfilling a key role in climate change, and that is also recognised in the Paris Climate Agreement." These were the opening statements made by our colleague Ulrik Lenaerts, the second-in-command of the Belgian climate delegation.

91% of excess heat

“That was confirmed once again by the latest report from the World Meteorological Organization,” he continued. “It clearly shows that as much as 91% of the excess heat is being absorbed by the ocean! Just 1% of it is causing the global atmospheric temperature to rise. The remaining percentages of excess heat are being absorbed by ecosystems such as forests and bogs.”

This is, of course, resulting in significant ocean warming worldwide. For example, the North Sea is currently 3.1 °C warmer than normal, whilst the temperature in the western Mediterranean Sea is already 4 °C above average. That, in turn, is a disaster for marine life. Some species – such as plankton – are struggling or are seeking out cooler places.

“The ocean is also absorbing up to one quarter of all CO₂ – which amounts to millions of metric tons,” Lenaerts added. “That, in turn, leads to acidification, which destroys the corals.”

A marginal role

Nevertheless, the ocean was given only a marginal role during the UN climate negotiations. But a 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change about the ocean and the cryosphere (that is, frozen regions of the earth, such as glaciers and ice caps) marked a turning point.

Consequently, the Madrid Climate Summit (2019) decided to set up a genuine dialogue on the subject of the ocean and climate disruption. The aim of this was to incorporate the ocean as a topic within existing climate negotiations and strengthen it by means of collaboration with other organisations.

This dialogue would be led for a period of two years by two facilitators – appointed by the parties to the climate treaty. One of those facilitators would be chosen from amongst the developed countries and one from amongst the developing countries. The initial dialogue began in 2021.

Co-facilitator

“Still, the impact of that Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue remained limited,” said Lenaerts. “Yes, it was certainly an interesting platform for raising awareness about the ocean, engaging the ocean community more closely and highlighting their efforts, but the climate negotiators paid little attention to it."

Just to be clear, this ‘ocean community’ is a vibrant group of organisations that are wholeheartedly committed to the ocean. Those organisations include research institutions, think tanks and NGOs, such as the World Resources Institute and the Pew Charitable Trusts and also the Ocean & Climate Platform, which has more than 115 member organisations.

The climate summit in Baku (2024) designated Belgium – represented by our colleague Ulrik Lenaerts – as a co-facilitator of the dialogue in 2025 and 2026. On behalf of the developing countries, Brazil served as facilitator in 2025 and Fiji in 2026.

“That gave us a unique opportunity to do things differently,” said Lenaerts. “By the way, the fact that they decided to designate Belgium is certainly no coincidence. After all, Belgium has already been working tirelessly to protect the ocean for many years.” (see box)

Ocean-based climate actions

“Together with Brazil, we developed a vision to bring genuine, ocean-based climate actions more into the spotlight,” Lenaerts explained.

“For example, we felt it was important that such actions should first be given much more attention in the national climate plans. After all, the ocean has enormous potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; it can help to close as much as one third of the ambition gap. Some examples of that potential include offshore renewable energy (wind, tidal power, etc.), the phasing out of fossil fuels in shipping, or more sustainable fishing and tourism.”

“As a second step, we felt it would be helpful to enable the ocean to become a more visible part of the negotiations on the subject of adaptation indicators (food, water, etc.). Ideally, we should start out from a baseline that sets out exactly what constitutes a healthy marine ecosystem. This will help us assess the impact of rising sea levels more accurately or consider what we can do to make coastal residents more resilient.”

“Thirdly, it is clear that the various UN conventions – on climate, biodiversity, the oceans, and so on – need to work much more closely together in order to enhance each other's activities. This is especially true in the case of the brand-new BBNJ Agreement on the Protection of the High Seas (see box), the very first Conference of the Parties (or COP) of which is scheduled to take place in January 2027.”

High visibility

The revamped approach regarding the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue in 2025 paid off! Lenaerts: “Approximately 80% of the national climate plans mentioned at least one ocean-based climate action and in the case of coastal and island nations, that figure is even higher than 90%. However, those actions were mostly confined to adaptation measures such as improving the resilience of mangroves and seagrass meadows. There is still much more that can be done in terms of mitigation – reducing emissions by implementing renewable energy and making the shipping sector more sustainable. Initiatives of this type also need to be carried out on a much larger scale. What is more, over 50 countries have still not submitted a national climate plan.”

Therefore the vision has been further refined in partnership with Fiji. This yielded an interesting set of recommendations during the recent two-day Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue in Bonn.

Lenaerts: “For example, ocean-related actions should be more clearly reflected in the reporting system. That might sound technical, but it's really important. Because that way, organisations working on climate issues will gain a better understanding of the opportunities that the ocean has to offer. And the amount of interaction between the climate and ocean communities will also increase.”

Another of the recommendations concerns funding. “The funding mechanisms that exist at the moment, such as the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility, still pay too little attention to the ocean. The Standing Committee on Finance is expected to change that this coming September.”

As a co-facilitator of the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue, our country is also gaining a lot of visibility. For example, we attended the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya (June 2026), which is an annual gathering of the ocean community. And during London Climate Action Week, Ulrik Lenaerts was invited to speak about the importance of the ocean within climate actions. London Climate Week is a high-level event attended, amongst others, by the British Climate Minister, the former U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry, and the chairs of the most recent climate summits.

COP31

The next UN Climate Change Conference, COP31, will take place in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026. Türkiye is the COP president, but Australia will lead the negotiations. The Pacific Ocean will also play a leading role at the event. After all, COP31 aims to give sufficient attention to small island states facing the threats posed by rising sea levels.

“As early as next week (this article is being written on 2 July 2026, editor), I will be meeting with Fiji, Türkiye, and Australia to discuss the COP31 agenda,” said Lenaerts. “Ocean & climate change is certainly one of the priorities, but the conference will also be about creating greater synergies between the UN conventions, the important role of the ocean in the energy transition, and so on. COP31 aims to bring together the ocean and climate issues, possibly even during a dialogue taking place at ministerial level.”

Let there be no doubt: our country is firmly at the helm in the effort to ensure that the ocean is given a much higher position on the political agenda of UN climate policy and that seems to be working pretty well. National climate plans are devoting significantly more attention to this issue and it will be a priority at the upcoming COP31. The entire ocean community is also highly enthusiastic about our efforts.

This once again confirms the commitment and expertise we are providing in the service of the ocean. Establishing the BBNJ Secretariat in Brussels would be a fitting and well-deserved outcome of that.