Turning Germany into a True Ocean Champion

Overfishing, pollution, overexploitation, offshore energy projects, and unsustainable use of marine resources threaten ocean health and its capacity to mitigate the effects of climate change. The benefits of restoring ocean health are clear, yet, political will and incentives are lacking. Germany is, at least on paper, one of the leading EU member states on ocean governance and climate action; nonetheless, our seas are still in a poor environmental state that continues to deteriorate. Since the new German government has committed to ambitious marine targets in its coalition agreement, we see a unique opportunity to strengthen national and European ocean governance. However, being a challenge on its own, turning this opportunity into reality is further made more difficult with the ongoing war in Ukraine. As a result, poorly justified oil and gas projects are emerging under the pretext of energy security. Eventually, this would not only lead to a strong oversupply of fossil gas and, consequently, a strong increase in avoidable greenhouse gas emissions but also a massive environmental impact on the marine habitat. In addition, the need to rebuild our energy system is increasing pressure on the marine environment as a substantial expansion of offshore wind capacities is planned. Therefore, we need more efforts, especially from civil society, to ensure an adequate German response to the climate and biodiversity crisis in our oceans and to find the urgently needed balance between climate and biodiversity protection.