The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate: what does CCAMLR need to know?

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) was approved by the 195 member governments (including all CCAMLR Member governments) at the IPCC's 51st Session (IPCC-51) in September 2019 in Monaco. The SROCC constitutes the most rigorous and up-to-date assessment of how the ocean and cryosphere are changing, how they will change in the future under different climate change scenarios, the consequences of those changes, and the potential and limitations of various response options. In this paper, we summarise the findings of the SROCC with relevance to CCAMLR’s Scientific Committee and its Working Groups, particularly Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG-EMM) and Fish Stock Assessment (WG-FSA). We focus on Southern Ocean harvested species and on associated and dependent species, and also include information relevant for CCAMLR’s Ecosystem Monitoring Programme (CEMP). Findings from this report can be used to inform CCAMLR’s discussion of possible future monitoring and management actions in the context of climate change impacts on Southern Ocean ecosystems and fisheries, with the aim of ensuring that management is responsive to the effects of change.