The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement recognizes the need for effective and progressive responses to the urgent threat of climate change. To implement the Agreement member states are required to prepare, communicate and maintain successive Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), submitted every five years to the UNFCCC secretariat. By September 2017 a total of 155 NDCs had been submitted to the UNFCCC. Out of these, 87 address fisheries and aquaculture, of which 78 include climate change adaptation measures in the sector.  With the purpose of supporting countries in their development of NDCs the FAO decided to prepare a Technical Paper on the Effects of Climate Change on Fisheries and Aquaculture. The report, which is released today, provides the most up-to-date information on the disaggregated impacts of climate change for marine and inland fisheries, and aquaculture, in the context of poverty alleviation and the differential dependency of countries on fish and fishery resources. The work is based on model projections, data analyses, as well as national, regional and basin-scale expert assessments.  This side event is intended to present the report, provide specific examples that exemplify the challenges that climate change poses on the sector, and encapsulates the work in the context of FAO’s climate change strategies and actions.

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