Ocean Acidification: A Hidden Risk for Sustainable Development

The issue of climate change currently holds the attention of the international community. Worsening emissions predictions and a perception that impacts are occurring more rapidly than anticipated have heightened concerns. While awareness has grown about a wide range of adverse climate change impacts, ‘ocean acidification’ and its potential harm to the environment, socio-economic systems, and developing countries is little known outside of a small group of scientists, mostly comprising oceanographers. Efforts to raise wider attention to the issue have only recently begun including by the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the United Nations Environmental Programme.