1998 Year of the Ocean Impacts of Global Climate Change 



Internationally, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO is 

 coordinating the development of a Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). This is an 

 intergovernmental program for the collection, distribution, and exchange of marine and 

 oceanographic data. One of its principal elements, the GOOS Coastal Module, is designed to 

 integrate and facilitate access to in-situ and remotely sensed coastal observations for reliable 

 assessment, prediction and management of coastal areas and resources. 



The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network is a major contribution to the GOOS Coastal 

 Module. Co-sponsored by the IOC, United Nations Environment Programme and the World 

 Conservation Union, the network's goal is to improve the conservation, management, and 

 sustainable use of coral reefs and related coastal ecosystems by providing data and information 

 on trends in their biophysical status and the social, cultural, and economic values that pertain to 

 these ecosystems. 



Two major international climate change assessments (1990 and 1995) have been 

 conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was established by 

 the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment 

 Programme (UNEP) in 1988. These assessments examined the available science, the magnitude 

 of human-induced climate change, and appropriate response options. Some areas that require 

 ftirther scientific research and data include scaling down of current general circulation models to 

 obtain local climate change estimates, as the current GCM resolution is too low. In addition, sea- 

 level rise alone is not an exclusive feature of climate change in coastal areas. Therefore, climate 

 change studies need to be broader, combining the effects of sea-level rise, storminess, 

 atmospheric circulation change, precipitation, etc. 



The IPCC 1995 assessment indicates that more work is necessary for quantifying the 

 social costs of climate change. Net climate change damages include both market and non-market 

 impacts and, in some cases, adaptation costs. However, the non-market damages (e.g. human 

 health, risk of human mortality and damage to ecosystems, etc.) are highly speculative and not 

 comprehensive, and therefore are a source of major uncertainty in assessing the implications of 

 global climate change for human welfare. 



Legal Framework 



The United States is a Party to the Framework Convention on Climate Change that 

 entered into force in 1994. Its major objective is to achieve the stabilization of greenhouse gas 

 emissions and to identify national adaptation strategies. Article 4 of the Convention commits 

 nations to, among other things, develop integrated plans for coastal zone management as part of 

 their adaptation strategies. In response to potential commitments and obligations under the 

 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, many nations, including the U.S., 

 are preparing national climate change action plans that identify management strategies to reduce 

 greenhouse gas emissions. Although the United States is not currently developing a plan for 

 adapting to the potential impacts of long-term climate change, such plans could be developed 

 within the framework of existing laws. 



G-37 



