FORMAL POLICY DOCUMENT
IP 146: Towards a climate-smart pathway for ocean management in Antarctica
This Information Paper — IP 46 — was submitted by the Delegations of Portugal, Canada, and France to the 48th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM 48) and the 28th Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP 28). The meetings took place from May 11 to 21, 2026, in Hiroshima, Japan, with more than 400 delegates.
Information Paper IP 46 highlights how spatial management and protection in Antarctica need to be 'climate-smart' to be able to respond to the rapid and accelerating pace of change in the region. The document further noted that it is fundamental to take a holistic, comprehensive, and integrated view of the system being managed, recognizing social-ecological interlinkages, and assessing cumulative impacts of all existing human uses, as well as cumulative impacts from these uses and environmental change. Finally, IP 146 provided examples of how participatory mapping tools, such as SeaSketch, could be useful in the practical application of this approach.
It is based on scientific research developed under PLAnT, namely “Taking climate-smart governance to the high seas” in Science and “Aligning climate-smart marine spatial planning and ecoscape restoration for global biodiversity recovery” in Nature Reviews Biodiversity.
Information Paper IP 146 can be directly downloaded above, or at the ATCM 48 webpage:
https://www.ats.aq/devAS/Meetings/Documents/101?id=101&tab=meeting
This Information Paper — IP 46 — was submitted by the Delegations of Portugal, Canada, and France to the 48th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM 48) and the 28th Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP 28). The meetings took place from May 11 to 21, 2026, in Hiroshima, Japan, with more than 400 delegates.
Information Paper IP 46 highlights how spatial management and protection in Antarctica need to be 'climate-smart' to be able to respond to the rapid and accelerating pace of change in the region. The document further noted that it is fundamental to take a holistic, comprehensive, and integrated view of the system being managed, recognizing social-ecological interlinkages, and assessing cumulative impacts of all existing human uses, as well as cumulative impacts from these uses and environmental change. Finally, IP 146 provided examples of how participatory mapping tools, such as SeaSketch, could be useful in the practical application of this approach.
It is based on scientific research developed under PLAnT, namely “Taking climate-smart governance to the high seas” in Science and “Aligning climate-smart marine spatial planning and ecoscape restoration for global biodiversity recovery” in Nature Reviews Biodiversity.
Information Paper IP 146 can be directly downloaded above, or at the ATCM 48 webpage:
https://www.ats.aq/devAS/Meetings/Documents/101?id=101&tab=meeting
