DAVID MILIBAND

CO CHAIR - David Miliband is President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and a former UK Foreign Secretary. Founded by Albert Einstein, the IRC is a charity that works in more than 40 countries helping refugees and victims of conflict and disaster. Mr Miliband joined the IRC in September 2013 after 12 years as a Member of the British Parliament. His first government post came in 2002 when he was appointed Minister for Schools. As Secretary of State for the Environment from 2006 to 2007, he pioneered the world's first legally binding bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010, he oversaw creation of a marine reserve around the Chagos Islands, which remains the world's biggest reserve where no commercial fishing is permitted.

The Global Ocean Commission says the lawless high seas - the parts of the world's oceans outside the jurisdiction of individual governments - are being degraded by pollution, overfishing and drilling.

Commissioner and co-chair David Miliband, former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom is quoted as saying: "The high seas are like a failed state,"

"Poor governance and the absence of policing and management mean valuable resources are unprotected or being squandered."

"The high seas belong to us all. We know what needs to be done but we can't do it alone. A joint mission must be our priority."

The group has published a report calling for sweeping reforms to reverse the decline of the ocean's health.

The "five-year rescue package" offers a number of broad policy recommendations. It calls on the United Nations and national governments to explicitly outlaw fishing in international waters and for stronger international cooperation on marine issues. Similarly it calls for a more concerted effort by world leaders and government to stop ocean pollution and guard against illegal fishing.

Maybe most interestingly, the commission calls on the world's wealthier nations to stop subsidizing commercial fishing on the high seas. The United States, Japan, China, and many European countries shell out some $27 billion to subsidize the vessels - mainly via fuel subsides - that plunder the high seas' fishing stocks.

"We should end subsidies for high seas fishing," argued Miliband. "When it comes to subsidies for industrial-scale resource extraction, like industrial fishing on the high seas, we are doing a huge disservice to future generations."

The commission delivered the report this week with the hope that it would spur action on the international stage. The U.N. is set to meet in New York in September to discuss climate change and other environmental issues.

The Global Ocean Commission is an independent group organized by former world leaders and ocean experts; it's funded by the Adessium Foundation, Oceans 5, and Pew Charitable Trusts.

TWO CHINESE TRAWLERS - stop directly in front of the military Sealift Command ocean surveillance ship USNS Impeccable (T-AGOS-23), forcing the ship to conduct an emergency "all stop" in order to avoid collision in the South China Sea on March 8, 2009. The incident took place in international waters in the South China Sea about 75 miles south of Hainan Island. The trawlers came within 25 feet of Impeccable, as part of an apparent coordinated effort to harass the unarmed ocean surveillance ship. (Photo/U.S. Navy)



José María Figueres	Trevor Manuel	David Miliband

The objective of the Global Ocean Commission is to address the issues hereis by formulating ‘politically and technically feasible short, medium, and long-term recommendations.

These final recommendations were to be published in early 2014, shortly before the UN General Assembly began discussions on protecting high seas biodiversity – a commitment made at the Rio+20 summit in 2013. The work of the Commission thus focuses on four key tasks:

1. To examine key threats, challenges, and changes to the ocean in the 21st century, and identify priority issues. The Commission will utilise both scientific and economic evidence, drawing on existing reports from world experts, as well as commencing original research in partnership with other organisations.

2. To review the effectiveness of the existing legal framework for the high seas in meeting these challenges. According to the Commission, this means a special focus on the effectiveness of regional fisheries management organisations, particularly with respect to their accountability, transparency, and performance. It also means reviewing the governance gap on biodiversity conservation and analysing options for combatting IUU fishing. The Commission will also assess the suitability of the existing legal regime for regulating emerging uses of the global ocean.

3. To engage with interested parties around the world, as well as the general public. The Commission will connect with fishers, military and merchant navies, recreational sailors, seafood companies, conservation groups and the emergent seabed mining business. The Commission also aims to raise understanding among policymakers, economists and other groups, including the general public, of the implications should high seas issues not be reformed.

4. To make recommendations regarding ‘cost-effective, pragmatic and politically feasible reforms of high seas governance, management and enforcement.’ While the threat analysis will take account of external issues such as climate change, recommendations will focus on reforms that can be achieved by evolving high seas governance. Some may concern the fundamental legal framework under which the global ocean is governed, whereas others may focus on improving the effectiveness of existing mechanisms.

The Global Ocean Commission
Somerville College
Woodstock Road
Oxford, OX2 6HD

CO CHAIR - David Miliband mixes it up with presidents, fellow MPs, actors and the most important person in his life, his wife Louise.

GLOBAL OCEAN COMMISSIONERS - A map of the world showing the location of the GOC's commissioners.


Carol Browner	Victor Chu	Obiageli Ezekwesili	Luiz Furlan	Vladimir Golitsyn	Robert Hill	Yoriko Kawaguchi
.	.	.	.	.	.	.

Pascal Lamy	Paul Martin	Sri Mulyani Indrawati	Cristina Narbona	Ratan Tata	Foua Toloa	Andrés Velasco


Simon Reddy	Rémi Parmentier	Clare Brennan	Kristian Teleki	Inés de Águeda	Sarah Gardner

RICH COUNTRIES PAY ZOMBIES $5 BILLION A YEAR IN SUBSIDIES TO PLUNDER THE OCEANS - Without the subsidies, most of these businesses would fail. So thoroughly have industrial fleets over-fished the seas that they couldn’t afford the fuel to travel the ever-increasing distance needed to catch the same amount of fish if their governments didn’t lavish public funds upon them.

In economics, you’d call these zombies - unprofitable companies that would fail if governments didn’t prop them up. There are two big problems with zombies. First, they take resources that could go to support new, productive companies. And by subsidizing zombies, governments allow them to keep prices low, driving productive companies out of business.

RICH COUNTRIES PAY ZOMBIES $5 BILLION A YEAR IN SUBSIDIES TO PLUNDER THE OCEANS - If industrial fleets weren’t subsidized, they’d go out of business. Small-scale fisheries that don’t need enormous amounts of fuel to catch huge hauls of fish - i.e. the ones using sustainable fishing practices - would then in theory thrive. Many of these fishermen are in poor countries whose governments can’t afford to compete in the industrial looting.

Worse, there’s a double-whammy zombie effect going on in the fishing context. Government subsidies to highly destructive industrial fleets don’t just deprive small-scale fishermen of finite taxpayer dollars and edge them out of the market with cheap prices; they also rob them of current and long-term fishing stocks.

RICH COUNTRIES PAY ZOMBIES $5 BILLION A YEAR IN SUBSIDIES TO PLUNDER THE OCEANS - Not all subsidies are bad. In fact, subsidies to promote fishery resource conservation and management - things like stock assessments and stock monitoring - are exactly the kinds of things we should be pressing our governments to foot the bill for. But some $16 billion in subsidies goes exclusively toward making it cheaper to catch more fish. That’s a problem, given that the global deepwater fleet is already 2.5 times bigger than what the GOC says is sustainable to maintain global fish stocks.

Take, for example, the global high-seas bottom-trawl fleet. The top 12 highest-catching nations pony up a total of $152 million a year, worth a quarter of what the fleet catches. Yet this fleet’s margins are typically 10%. That means these highly destructive vessels couldn’t stay in business if not for government handouts. The solution is simple, cut all subsidies immediately. Clearly, such action would cause a food shortage. And that is why government pussies are happy to let these behemoths continue to destroy the marine environment - obviously hoping for a miracle. It's a short term attitude that defeats the core sustainability agenda. The Circular Economy is doomed.

The Global Ocean Commission at its meeting in Oxford, 21st-23rd November 2013 (left to right) Robert Hill, Paul Martin, Foua Toloa, Yoriko Kawaguchi, Simon Reddy (Executive Secretary), Victor Chu, Andrés Velasco, Obiageli Ezekwesili, Trevor Manuel (Co-chair), Cristina Narbona, David Miliband (Co-chair), John Podesta, Pascal Lamy, José María Figueres (Co-chair), Vladimir Golitsyn, Ratan Tata.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commissioner_for_Maritime_Affairs_and_Fisheries

http://www.virgin.com/unite/leadership-and-advocacy/introducing-global-ocean-commission

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/prince-charles-speaks-dangers-plastic-waste-oceans-29736519

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150318-prince-charles-oceans-trash-plastic-britain/

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-03-18/prince-charles-makes-impassioned-plea-for-oceans-clean-up/