Latest content: Commonwealth Blue Charter

Youth has an increasingly crucial role to play in reducing pollution and protecting our planet, said the Antigua and Barbuda Minister of Health and Environment, Molwyn Joseph, at an event to commemorate World Environment Day.

International concern for the plight of the global ocean is at an all-time high. In April this year, the 53 countries of the Commonwealth adopted the Commonwealth Blue Charter, creating a bright blue beacon to guide cooperative action on ocean issues. 

In August 2017, Jeff Ardron, Ocean Governance Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat, reported on the first High-level Pacific Blue Economy Conference, in Fiji: “The ‘Blue Economy’ is a term that appears to have been invented independently by both Pacific Islanders and the colourful German entrepreneur Günter Pauli.

Commonwealth leaders today agreed on a bold, co-ordinated push to protect the ocean from the effects of climate change, pollution and over-fishing. Their landmark decision to adopt a Commonwealth Blue Charter will affect one third of the world’s national coastal waters, helping to sustain livelihoods and ecosystems globally.