At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), 45 world leaders, whose governments collectively represent over 70% of global GDP, launched the 2030 Breakthrough Agenda, aiming to deliver near-term significant change across every sector of the global economy in order to achieve a resilient, zero carbon future in time.

Within the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion mandate, the “2030 Breakthroughs” pinpoint specific near term targets where greater contributions are needed to galvanize public and private action. Each Breakthrough establishes an accountability framework for annual review and a dedicated action cycle to track developments towards a specific set of goals for the selected priority.

The first set of government-led Breakthrough goals launched at COP26 (known as the ‘Glasgow Breakthroughs’) covered five key emitting sectors that together represent more than 50% of global emissions. At COP27, the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda was launched as the solutions agenda to the Priority Actions, also promoting climate-resilient development.

The Climate Champions’ Breakthrough mandate covers different themes including Human Settlements, Energy, Industry, Land, Ocean, Water, Transport, and Carbon Removals. The Coral Reef Breakthrough will sit within the mandate for Ocean, alongside the Mangrove Breakthrough.

The Coral Reef Breakthrough aims to secure the future of at least 125,000 km2 of shallow-water tropical coral reefs with investment of at least US$12 billion to support the resilience of more than half a billion people globally by 2030.

In addition to broad-based climate action, the Coral Reef Breakthrough will be achieved through:

• Action point 1: Stop drivers of loss: Mitigate local drivers of loss including land-based sources of pollution, destructive coastal development, and overfishing.
• Action point 2: Double the area of coral reefs under effective protection: Bolster resilience-based coral reef conservation efforts by aligning with and transcending global coastal protection targets including 30by30.
• Action point 3: Accelerate Restoration: Assist the development and implementation of innovative solutions at scale and climate smart designs that support coral adaptation to impact 30% of degraded reefs by 2030.
• Action point 4: Secure investments of at least USD 12 billion by 2030 from public and private sources to conserve and restore these crucial ecosystems.

For more than one billion people whose daily lives are inextricably linked with life below water, healthy coral reefs are critical sources of sustainable food, livelihoods and income generation, protection from storm surges, medicinal properties, and significant cultural heritage. Coral reefs are essential to the security, resilience, and climate adaptation of climate-vulnerable nations, particularly those situated in low-lying island states. 

The intersection of climate change and biodiversity loss has emphasised the need for increased international cooperation and action to conserve, sustainably manage, and restore coral reefs. Coral reefs exist in more than 100 countries and territories and, whilst they cover less than 1% of the seafloor, they support at least 25% of marine life and provide ecosystem services valued up to US$9.9 trillion annually (Costanza et al. 2014).

The climate crisis and other local anthropogenic stressors, such as land and marine pollution, unsustainable tourism and coastal development, overfishing and other harmful extractive activities, pose existential threats to coral reef survival. This combination of threats have already resulted in the loss of more than half of the world’s coral reefs. The world has lost 14 percent of the coral on its coral reefs since 2009, and despite being a cornerstone of marine health and climate resilience, current projections demonstrate the risk of 90 percent of the world’s remaining coral reefs disappearing by 2050 (GCRMN 2020).  The window for protecting these ecosystems is closing rapidly.