Our top story on KPBS Midday Edition, it is day two of the climate summit in Paris. We have a number of people from San Diego who are part of the conference. Yassir Eddebbar is it among a team of students and faculty from the scripts University. His job is to educate delicates the role the oceans play and climate change. We have here in the studio -- before he gets on a plane for Paris. Yes here, welcome to the show. Pinch for having me. Seemed odd, in your experience -- the oceans have not played a major role in any of these climate talks. Dating historically back into the Kyoto Protocol Absolutely . To give a background on the climate negotiations, they started in 1992 with the creation of the night United Nations climate change. That gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol . That protocol and its entirety did not mission the -- mention the word ocean. How is that possible? The oceans play a big part in the earth. That is correct. The oceans are responsible for about a quarter of the carbon intake from the atmosphere. The remaining carbon emission -- omissions in the atmosphere trap heat. About 90% of that he goes into the ocean. That carbon in that heat changes the chemistry and the physical circulation and heat of the ocean and has a wide impact and echo systems. So what kind of impact releasing from climate change and the oceans? In the oceans around San Diego? Worldwide we see warmer temperatures. Especially developing El Niño's. We see that here around Scripps Bay some of the highest temperatures ever recorded since the 1920s. And the pH of the water is decreasing. The acidity is increasing. And also the oxygen content of the ocean is decreasing. Were changing the chemistry and heat content of the ocean that makes marine habitats smaller and makes it harder for mentoring organisms and echo systems to adapt. What sort of impact will we see on marine life over the next several years if we don't see any agreements coming out of Paris? Over the next few decades, we should start to see decreases in oxygen content and acidification. That would impact -- for example causa flying organisms like world of gels. Also warmer temperatures will push some of the Marine ecosystems either toward the pole. Have an impact on marine fisheries along with existing stressors like overfishing. And Marine pollution. I think when we set up a negotiations table, the ocean seems to be probably the furthest thing from most of the delicates concerns. That's understandable to a certain degree. Though I think from what you're saying, the oceans can also play a real role in reducing climate change. They take up as much carbon as China admits. That's a lot of carbon. That's correct. I think there should be at least some mention of the role the ocean in mitigating climate change. I think the really important point in climate negotiations is future emissions. When we decide on a target, reducing emissions by 30%. Have to take into account of the oceans in the future. Which may not be as strong as we think it would be. And so having natural -- into the policy debate is quite central. So what do they need to take into account when they are looking at it? Can -- can the oceans play a role or can they play a larger role without changing the oceans themselves? So within Paris, the scripts delegation which is made mostly of the director [ name unknown ], and the professor [ name unknown ] and 11 other students, we try to bring a lot of these ocean topics to the policy community and let them decide. The role of scientist is to inform policy, not advocated. For us it would be presenting this material as clear and easy and accessible a manner as possible. We do that by participating in panel events, informal discussions in hallways, having dinner events and receptions. I think that has actually gone quite a long ways over the last couple of years and recent conferences. Is it a matter of it is the UN and these are countries and countries are not oceans. Their various reasons, one of the main reasons is that the climate change problem is Artie very complex. If you go to these conference parties, you see there are a host of issues. There are no ocean delegates for example. Are now delegates that represent Marine echo systems except for scientist or NGOs. They tend to take a backseat, even though the ocean pays a central part. Our participation makes the case much clearer. Are coastal scientists banding together this time around to make this an issue? Absolutely. So Scripps institution of oceanography -- oceanography Center delegation every year. Along with several institutions around the country and world. We paired with our neighboring and sister institution in the UK through the climate and ocean platform. The big platform of NGOs and scientific organizations to promote or raise awareness of ocean topics throughout the conference. We over -- we organize oceans -- oceans today in a variety of events throughout the conference to bring these topics to that table. Are you looking for to this? Very much yes. This is an amazing experience for a PhD student and any student to see how complex this topic is. Get exposure to policymaking. And see the research impact society and a very positive way. So Yassir Eddebbar with the scripts Institute of oceanography. Have a safe flight. Thank you very much.
A team from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is in Paris attending the 21st United Nations Conference on Climate Change. They are there to educate conference delegates, who are working on an international climate treaty, on the role the ocean plays in climate change.
"The Kyoto Protocol, the biggest environmental treaty that was signed globally about climate change doesn't have the word ocean in it," said Yassir Eddebbar, a graduate student in oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography who leaves for Paris Wednesday.
"Throughout the meetings you rarely see any panels on ocean impacts or how countries would adapt for their fisheries," he said.
Eddebar told KPBS Midday Edition on Tuesday that oceans are responsible for about a quarter of the world's carbon outtake. But oceans have changed over the last few years.
"We see some of the highest temperatures ever recorded," Eddebar said. "Warmer temperatures are going to push ecosystems to the pole."
When world leaders decide on climate change goals — like reducing carbon emissions — the role of the ocean needs to be taken into consideration, Eddebar said.
"There should be some mention of the role of the ocean in mitigating climate change," he said.
