Failure to act on Antarctica leaves Emperor penguin out in the cold

The nations that govern Antarctica gathered in Hiroshima this week for the 48th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, yet they left without granting the emperor penguin the legal protection scientists say it urgently needs.

The proposal to designate the emperor penguin as a Specially Protected Species has the science firmly behind it. Earlier this year, the IUCN elevated the species to Endangered status. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research described changes across Antarctic systems as “abrupt and accelerating,” with sea ice loss – a critical breeding habitat for the penguin – characterised as “exceptional”. 

Under business-as-usual emissions, models project functional extinction of the species by 2100. The proposal was opposed by only a small minority of the Parties present. Yet, still it did not pass.

“The barometer is flashing red, yet critical protections are still being stymied by a small number of Parties,” said Rod Downie, WWF’s Chief Adviser, Polar and Oceans. “The endangered emperor penguin is a stark reminder of how the climate and nature crises are intertwined. We must look now to next year’s meeting in the Republic of Korea to deliver meaningful action to protect this icon on ice.”

Specially Protected Species status would have triggered a coordinated framework of conservation measures – binding commitments to protect the penguin from accelerating habitat loss. Instead, the meeting concluded with Parties reaffirming protection of the species as ‘a priority’. But with little by way of action to implement it.

The result illustrated what conservation groups described as the meeting’s ‘central failure’, and that – fundamentally – science is moving faster than diplomacy.