United Kingdom Overseas Territories Climate Change Pledge

    As coastal and island communities, our economies rely upon maintaining healthy, sustainable marine and terrestrial environments. We commit to take action to protect our fisheries resources and to conserve and, wherever possible, restore our marine ecosystems and biodiversity. Building on the good work already undertaken by the Overseas Territories, we reaffirm an alliance to take action to tackle the harmful effects of plastic pollution and marine litter, often as a result of other...

 

As coastal and island communities, our economies rely upon maintaining healthy, sustainable marine and terrestrial environments. We commit to take action to protect our fisheries resources and to conserve and, wherever possible, restore our marine ecosystems and biodiversity. Building on the good work already undertaken by the Overseas Territories, we reaffirm an alliance to take action to tackle the harmful effects of plastic pollution and marine litter, often as a result of other countries which have impacted our shores.

Our biodiversity, terrestrial and marine, support not only our wellbeing, but also contribute to our uniqueness, our nature-based fight against climate change and are important to those of us where tourism makes an important contribution to our economies. 

It is imperative that all nations prioritise their response to prevent further acceleration of human-induced global warming, and collectively commit to developing preventative measures to ensure the surface temperature does not exceed an increase of 1.5C.

We, as individual Territories, pledge to work with the UK Government to develop Territory-led actions that tackle the specific challenges climate changes poses for each of us, to use our oceans and natural resources sustainably, for the benefit of current and future generations, and to take action to protect and restore our biodiversity.

As Overseas Territories we pledge to work with others in a spirit of cooperation to secure meaningful outcomes from COP26 that will make a tangible difference in tackling the impacts of climate change in our territories.

*Notes to Editor: the Falkland Islands are in the midst of a general election; post-election, it is anticipated the Falkland Islands will agree the pledge.

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