SDG 14 – Life below Water

SDG 14 ’Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’ focuses on the conservation, management and protection of marine and costal ecosystems and the resilience of coastal communities.

In the updated NDC submissions, 5% of activities addressed Goal 14 compared with 3% in the first NDC submissions. In the first NDCs, countries were prioritising targets '14.2 Protect and restore marine and coastal ecosystems' (43%) and '14.5 Conserve coastal and marine areas' (25%), linking these to 'Coastal management, conservation and rehabilitation' (31%), 'Resilience of the fishery sector' (15%) and 'Mangroves protection' (13%) as key strategies for climate action. In the updated NDCs, countries are prioritising targets '14.2 Protect and restore marine and coastal ecosystems' (40%) and '14.5 Conserve coastal and marine areas' (33%), linking these to 'Coastal management, conservation and rehabilitation' (33%) 'Sustainable fishery management and fishing techniques' (15%) and 'Eco-system based adaptation' (11%) as key strategies for climate action.

Regarding first NDC submissions, activities related to this Goal are prioritising adaptation with 90% of the activities, while 5% focus on mitigation. Meanwhile, for updated NDC submissions 79% prioritise adaptation and 8% mitigation. The share of quantified activities has increased from 10% in the first NDCs to 13% in the updated NDC submissions.