Marine Spatial Planning addressing climate effects in the UK and beyond

Despite high confidence in global evidence on the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems and maritime sectors, implementation of climate-smart marine spatial plans is scarce. Collaboration at the science-policy interface is seen as a key accelerator towards making this ambition a reality. We report here on such a successful collaboration. Co-delivered transdisciplinary research involving UK marine and social scientists, economists, data engineers and software developers, as well as agencies with statutory responsibility for marine planning, conservation and resource management, has led to the development of fit-for-purpose climate data products and a transdisciplinary, web based and AI assisted decision support tool (ASPACE) which are already helping UK marine planners and those working on the spatial management of fisheries and MPAs to make climate-smart, economically viable and socially acceptable decisions about space allocation. Clear climate impacts are projected in the UK EEZ within the coming decades, extending from coastal areas across the continental shelf, and affecting species and habitats of high conservation and commercial value. However, opportunities also emerge for interventions that optimise the use and/or conservation of climate change refugia for different maritime sectors, and to protect ocean carbon towards climate change mitigation, which are economically feasible and aligned with the values held in different regions of the UK. This work is an important example of how co-designed and co-delivered research can help accelerate the change in marine policy we need, to promote climate actions necessary to deliver climate change adaptation and mitigation necessary to support sustainable ocean planning, for our ocean wildlife and for dependent communities. Knowledge sharing beyond this project is now supporting others in Europe, Western Indian Ocean, SE Asia and beyond, helping create similar decision-making chains that may, too, support our future ocean and its people under climate change.