First Ocean Targets
Science Based Targets Network releases its first ocean targets, aimed at providing a standardized framework for businesses in sustainable oceans.
Science Based Targets Network believes that the ocean is the world’s largest carbon sink and an important buffer zone for addressing climate change. The ocean targets released this time will encourage companies to adopt sustainable activities and protect marine ecosystems.
Related Post: Bloomberg Releases Global Ocean Conservation Report
Introduction to Ocean Targets
The first ocean targets set by the Science Target Network focus on the seafood value chain, where companies can incorporate ocean health into their sustainable development strategies and voluntarily take action to reduce negative impacts on the ocean. Enterprises that adopt ocean targets can enhance the long-term resilience of their supply chain and address the issue of declining marine biodiversity.
The Science Based Targets Network provides three scientific targets for enterprises, which involve key drivers of ocean degradation:
- Avoid and Reduce Overexploitation Target: Focus on wild fishery resources, avoid overexploitation of resources, and reduce overfishing.
- Protect Marine Habitats Target: To avoid and reduce damage to marine habitats such as coral reefs and seagrass and encourage the restoration and regeneration of important marine habitats.
- Reduce Risks to ETP Species target: Reduce the impact of fishing and aquaculture on marine life and improve their living conditions.
For enterprises, the common steps to adopt ocean targets include:
- Select data source: Choose the most suitable data to form their targets.
- Determine method: Determine their target methods based on their operational, procurement, and supply chain locations.
- Set enterprise level targets: Set specific targets based on enterprise data and methods.
- Verify objective: Verify the targets of the enterprise based on SBTN.
The Science Based Targets Network believes that companies need to evaluate whether their business activities have a material impact on ocean targets, rather than directly setting three targets. After setting targets, companies also need to develop a public social responsibility policy for the seafood value chain and submit it as part of the validation objectives. The Science Based Targets Network plans to release a series of targets related to the blue economy in the future, providing more detailed marine conservation guidelines for enterprises.
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