ESG NOW! UN Oceans Patron Pugh - We are Set to Lose the World’s Coral Reefs

Lewis Pugh speaks about swimming in the coldest oceans to highlight climate change

  • Overfishing, plastic pollution and climate change have created a ‘perfect storm’ for the world’s oceans
  • The world is on track to reach 2.3C and at 2C we will lose the world’s coral reefs
  • Pugh’s recent swim in Greenland highlighted the rapidly melting Ilulissat glacier

At ESG NOW!, Nomura’s global sustainable finance conference, endurance swimmer and UN Patron of the Oceans, Lewis Pugh highlighted why we need to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 and why coral reefs are under threat.

Pugh speaks in dramatic detail about three of his major swims in the North Pole, across the English Channel and on a lake in Everest and how the lessons he learned can help tackle global heating.

The Paris agreement commits the world to limiting warming to 1.5C yet we are on track to reach 2.3C and at 2C we will lose the world’s coral reefs, according to Pugh, who describes them as the nurseries of the ocean.

Pugh recently completed a swim at the Ilulissat glacier in Greenland that’s moving at a rate of 40 metres per day due to anthropogenic climate change. “It’s almost as if glaciers are moving faster than some our political leaders,” said Pugh. He spoke about the need to take “extreme responsibility” to avert a climate catastrophe.

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