Marine biologist Emily Cunningham MBE has witnessed first-hand the devastating impact of climate change on our planet’s marine ecosystems. With World Water Week 2025 (24-28 August) focusing on ‘Water for Climate Action’, covering the full water cycle from freshwater to oceans, Emily shares her insights on the connecting power of water for all aspects of life.
Environmental and social advocate
Stafford-born Emily was the first in her family to go to university, pursuing a childhood dream to become a marine biologist when she first learned about the risks facing species such as dolphins, whales and manatees.
“I come from a working class background. Nobody had a job like scientist, but I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she tells UNRIC.
With her sights set on her career goal, she secured a merit scholarship and a place at Bangor University in Wales to study marine biology, and has worked in ocean conservation for the past 13 years. In 2025, she was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for services to Marine Conservation and Coastal Communities by King Charles III.
Emily is committed to using her scientific expertise to drive positive change for our ocean, rivers and the communities that depend on them. For her, water is “key to climate resilience, climate adaptation, and climate action.”
Water at the centre of the climate crisis
“Water is the foundation of all life on Earth,” says Emily, who is today WWF’s global lead for river dolphin conservation across 14 countries in Asia and South America.
Her current focus on river dolphins showcases how water and climate change are inextricably linked.
Found in Asia and South America, the remaining six species of freshwater cetacean – five river dolphins and one freshwater porpoise – are endangered or critically endangered. A seventh species, the Yangtze river dolphin, was declared extinct in 2006.
“River dolphins are like the canaries in the coal mine showing us the effects of climate change,” she details.
River dolphins require a minimum water depth to be able to swim, but droughts trap them in small sections of water, sometimes for months at a time. Extreme heat causes water temperatures to rise so significantly that the dolphins die in these small pools of water. In 2023, at least 330 Amazon river dolphins died due to thermal stress.
In India and Bangladesh, in the Sundarbans mangrove forest, the habitats of Ganges river dolphins have been lost due to climate change-induced sea level rise, which has made the waterways too saline to be suitable habitat.
“If it’s affecting river dolphins, it’s affecting the whole ecosystem. It’s affecting all the communities that depend on that river for their livelihood,” Emily explains.
Far-reaching consequences of climate inaction
Our entire planet is being impacted by climate change, and Emily’s career as a marine biologist has allowed her to directly observe its destructive consequences.
“I get the incredible privilege of seeing amazing things, standing amongst 10,000 penguins, being surrounded by whales, seeing leopard seals coming up to your boat. But you also witness the reality of what we are doing to our planet.”
In the Amazon river, she bore witness to one of the worst droughts on record.
In Antarctica, she studied the effects of melting glaciers on ecosystems, with penguins breeding early and chicks starving. She saw just how far plastic pollution has spread across the globe.
“We found microfibers in every single water sample that we took in Antarctica,” she says. These fibers originate from synthetic clothes washed thousands of miles away.
On Ascension Island, located midway between Latin America and Africa in the South Atlantic, where Emily was monitoring green turtle nesting colonies, plastic washed up on the island’s isolated shores.
“Even there, far from any big cities, you’re still seeing the impacts of plastic pollution,” she recounts. “There is nowhere really left on Earth that’s immune to the human touch.”
Driving change for a better future
The planet needs strong commitments and actions from everyone – industries, governments, organisations, individuals – to help deliver action on water.
Using her expertise and recognising a gap among local governments with regards to the ocean, Emily co-founded #Motion4theOcean, described as the world’s first local government ocean recovery declaration.
“We noticed that the ocean was almost completely absent from the climate narrative, which is incredibly frustrating because it plays a very important role in the carbon cycle. It has huge potential to be an ally in our fight against climate change.”
The declaration is a blueprint for local governments to take action on areas that can impact the ocean, such as planning, economic growth and regeneration, skills and development, health and social care, and environmental protection.
It has so far been passed by 36 councils in England and Wales, serving over four million people. Six of the councils who have adopted the declaration are inland.
“That’s the bit I’m most excited about because it shows that no matter where we live, we impact and are impacted by our ocean,” says Emily. “It’s a paradigm shift in where the responsibility for ocean care lies.”
The initiative was presented at recent UN conferences on the ocean in Barcelona and Nice, and Emily hopes to see it expanded across the UK and globally.
We can all make a difference
This year’s Water Week recognises the ocean’s vital role in the hydrological cycle, the continuous circulation of water in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The ocean contains approximately 97% of the Earth’s water, and is crucial for regulating the Earth’s climate and sustaining the planet. It absorbs over 90% of the planet’s excess heat, and 30% of human-induced CO2 emissions.
Emily is committed to improving awareness about our seas, citing an Economist Impact 2025 study which found that 50% of 18 to 24-year-olds do not understand how they impact or are impacted by the ocean.
“The ocean is very much out sight and out of mind, and a lot of my work is trying to increase that ocean literacy, particularly amongst politicians and decision makers,” she explains.
On an individual level, we should make ocean-friendly choices when buying products or eating food, and consume only what we need. Reducing plastic use is critical, including by re-wearing clothes and washing them less often to reduce the presence of microfibers in water.
International cooperation is also essential to protect our seas.
At the 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice, countries adopted a bold political declaration and made over 800 voluntary commitments focused on marine protection, pollution control, high-seas governance and support for vulnerable nations.
“I do still feel hopeful,” says Emily. “I do still feel positive about what can be saved because I see I’m not alone in feeling like that. There are lots of people that still want to fight, and there is so much left to play for.”
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