Integrated actions across multiple sustainable development goals (SDGs) can help address coastal ocean acidification

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 constitute a set of 17 global goals established as a blueprint for achieving a more sustainable and equitable world for humanity. As part of the SDGs, target 14.3 is focuses on minimizing and addressing the impacts of Ocean Acidification (OA). We argue that moving forward in meeting the targets related to pH levels in the coastal ocean can be facilitated through accounting for various drivers of pH change, which are associated with advancing a suite of SDG goals. Addressing ‘coastal acidification’ via a suite of linked SDGs may help avoid inaction through connecting global phenomena with local impacts and drivers. This in turn can provide opportunities for designing novel place-based actions or partnerships that can aid and provide synergies for the joint implementation of programs and policies that tackle a suite of SDGs and the specific targets related to coastal ocean pH.