Summary
As the ATCM was sadly cancelled in 2020, in light of the global Covid-19 pandemic, ATCMXLIII in 2021 is the first meeting of the Parties since the publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC). The SROCC, which has been approved and accepted by the IPCC plenary, assimilates the evidence that climate change is having a profound impact on Antarctica, and that these impacts have consequential global effects. Some of the SROCC key findings in relation to Antarctica include the acceleration of ice flow and retreat in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica and in Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, which has the potential to lead to global mean sea-level rise of several metres within a few centuries. The report also highlights future changes to ocean circulation because of the significant amounts of human-produced heat and dissolved carbon in the Southern Ocean. It also projects changes in the distribution of krill, which will have consequential implications for the wider Antarctic ecosystem, including shifts in abundance and distribution of Antarctic mammals, birds and fish. Whilst the mitigation of global climate change from ongoing global warming is for another body, the ATCM is seized of the implications of climate change on the protection and management of Antarctica, and has a role to play in researching and communicating Antarctic climate change science to the international audience. Given the stark findings of the SROCC report on the future likely implications for Antarctica, including as a result of warming trends already in the global system, the UK, Belgium, Australia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United States recommend that the ATCM adopt an updated Resolution on climate change. A draft is attached.