Data appendix
The indicator set with its sources, the source registers, the licences of every kind of material and the formats of the edition.
Contents
- ·Edition home
- ·Executive summary
- 1Shared spaces change together
- 2Key findings
- 3Systems and sectors at baseline
- 4Risks and capability
- 5High seas treaty implementation and the first protected areas
- 6Readings from the other desks
- 7The 2027 agenda
- 8Systems in depth
- AMethodology
- BData appendix
- CReferences and record
- ·Complete edition, for print
B.1The indicator set
| Indicator | Value | Unit | Year | State | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arctic sea ice minimum, September 2025 | 4.60 | million km² | 2025 | Reported | 1 |
| Arctic sea ice minimum, USNIC 3-day average | 4.86 | million km² | 2025 | Reported | 2 |
| Arctic sea ice maximum, March 2026, NSIDC | 14.29 | million km² | 2026 | Reported | 2 |
| Antarctic sea ice maximum, September 2025 | 17.81 | million km² | 2025 | Reported | 7 |
| Greenland ice sheet loss | 129 | billion tons | 2025 | Reported | 3 |
| Sea level rise since 1993 | 115.2 | mm | 2024 | Reported | 6 |
| Sea level rise rate | 4.4 | mm a year | 2024 | Reported | 6 |
| Sea level rate, 2016 to 2025 | 4.1 | mm a year | 2025 | Reported | 5 |
| Reef thermal tipping point, central estimate | 1.2 | °C | 2025 | Estimated | 9 |
| Planetary boundaries breached | 7 of 9 | count | 2025 | Reported | 10 |
| Assessed stocks that are sustainable | 62.4 | % | 2024 | Reported | 21 |
| Landings from sustainable stocks | 72.6 | % | 2024 | Reported | 21 |
| High seas under protected areas | 1.45 | % | 2026 | Reported | 16 |
| Parties to the high seas treaty | 105 | parties | 2026 | Reported | 11 |
| Acceptances of the fisheries subsidies agreement | 123 | members | 2026 | Reported | 12 |
B.2Global source register
The governed source set behind this edition. Each source keeps its authority, coverage, cadence and role; categories describe origin, not truth.
Domains bound by the register
- CLI
- BIO
- FOO
- INF
- MIN
- TRD
- ENE
- WAT
- FIN
- DAT
| Source | Category | Coverage | Period | Cadence | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSIDC Sea Ice Today1 | university data centre | Arctic | 2025 | annual | sea ice extent |
| USNIC press release2 | national agencies | Arctic | 2026 | annual | dataset differences |
| NOAA Arctic Report Card3 | national agency | Arctic | 2025 | annual | Arctic change |
| WMO update5 | UN agency | global | 2025 | annual | sea level rate |
| NASA sea level6 | national agency | global | 2024 | continuous | sea level |
| Global Tipping Points Report9 | research consortium | global | 2025 | periodic | reef threshold |
| Planetary Health Check10 | research consortium | global | 2025 | annual | acidification |
| UN Treaty Collection11 | UN depositary | global | 2026 | per event | treaty status |
| WTO acceptances12 | trade body | global | 2026 | per event | subsidy rules |
| ESA Space Environment Report17 | space agency | global | 2025 | annual | orbital health |
B.3Regional reading, ten regional clusters
Map plates follow with the regional Baseline Editions, when boundary sources and public-safe resolutions are bound. This page gives the regional reading in table form and ranks no region.
| Region | Principal hazards | Systems most exposed | Baseline evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | Arctic coasts; deep seabed licensing; storm surge | ice, coast, seabed | NOAA342 |
| South America | reefs; fisheries; Antarctic gateway | fish, reefs | regional statistics (not bound) |
| Europe | North Atlantic and Arctic waters; shipping rules | shipping, ice | IMO41 |
| Eurasia | Arctic coastline and shipping routes | ice, shipping | Arctic Report Card3 |
| Middle East and North Africa | warm seas; coastal exposure | reefs, coast | bleaching record8 |
| Africa | fisheries and coastal communities | fish, coast | FAO via21 |
| South Asia | sea level and storm surge | coast, fish | sea level record6 |
| East Asia | fisheries; shipping; reefs | fish, shipping | FAO via21; WTO12 |
| ASEAN | coral triangle reefs; coastal exposure | reefs, fish | tipping point report9 |
| Oceania-Pacific | island states; reefs; sea level | reefs, coast | sea level record6;9 |
B.4Regional card: the Arctic
- region
- ice
- air temperature
- ice sheet
- Systems in view
- sea ice, ice sheet, coasts, shipping routes
- Defining events
- lowest winter sea ice maximum in the record, March 20253
- Couplings
- CLI → INF; CLI → BIO
- Capability evidence
- long public satellite series13
- Gaps
- ice thickness; activity counts on a common basis
- Agenda items
- C-02 · C-07
The September 2025 minimum was 4.60 million km², tenth lowest in the 47-year record, and all 19 of the lowest September minimums fall in the last 19 years [1] [3].
ICE
Sea ice
Arctic air from October 2024 to September 2025 was the warmest since 1900 and warming since 2006 has been more than twice the global rate [3].
AIR
Warming
The ice sheet lost an estimated 129 billion tons in 2025, below the 2003 to 2024 average of 219 billion tons [3].
LAND ICE
Greenland
B.5How countries appear in the global edition
Countries enter the global commons edition through the ocean and coastal chapters of their own national editions, on one card grammar. They are read against peer distributions and thresholds, never placed in a league table.
| Card field | What it shows | Source |
|---|---|---|
| WEFH+B state | each core system against peer distribution bands | national edition |
| Couplings | the national dependency matrix | national edition |
| Risk objects | the national risk portfolio | national edition |
| Capability rungs | the national capability ladder | national edition |
| Evidence age | oldest and newest source dates | national source register |
Editions in the 2026 Baseline programme
26national
countries and unions
10regional
clusters
16global
flagship and sector
20frontier
technology reports
How to read a country card
- Each system is shown against the distribution of its peers, with thresholds where they exist
- Couplings and risk objects come from the country’s own national edition
- Capability rungs record evidence, not a judgement of institutions
- Evidence age is printed, so older national data are visible as such
| Wave | Countries and unions | State |
|---|---|---|
| W0 | Canada | ISSUED |
| W1 | United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, European Union, Switzerland | PLANNED |
| W2 | Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Türkiye, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Senegal, Kenya, African Union, India, China, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia | PLANNED |
B.6Licences
| Material | Licence |
|---|---|
| Text | CC BY 4.0 |
| Data | on the licence of each source; Nexus tables CC BY 4.0 |
| Figures | Nexus figures CC BY 4.0; third-party as credited |
| Maps | boundary source and licence printed on each plate |
| Metadata | CC0 1.0, as Zenodo publishes it |
| Third-party data, figures and text | The source’s own licence, credited where it is used; never relicensed |
| Nexus-authored text, tables and figures: CC BY 4.0 (SPDX CC-BY-4.0). Map plates print their boundary source and licence. | |
B.7Formats and provenance
| Format | Kind | State | What it is | Identifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web edition | HTML | On this site | Draft in stewardship review; every value resolves to its source. | NR-STRATEGIC-COMMONS-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0 |
| Print edition | At release | A4 portrait · screen, print and archival PDF, signed with the web edition at release. | NR-STRATEGIC-COMMONS-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0 | |
| Indicator data | CSV · JSON | On this site | 15 indicators with unit, year, status and source; the machine-readable copy ships with the evidence bundle at release. | NR-STRATEGIC-COMMONS-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE data release v1 |
| Figures | SVG · PNG | On this site | 4 on the web edition: headline figure, figure 1.3, coupling instrument, capability ladder. | FIG-STRATEGIC-COMMONS-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-* |
| Slides | Not recorded | No slide deck is recorded for this edition. | ||
| Evidence brief | HTML · PDF | Not recorded | No evidence brief is recorded for this edition. | |
| Dataset with DOI | DataCite | At release | Concept and version DOI are minted at deposit; none is recorded yet. |
Provenance
- Edition pack
- The edition’s content pack (JSON), from which the print and web editions are built
- Evidence cut
- DC-STRATEGIC-COMMONS-GLOBAL-2026-B0, closed 30 September 2026
- Reproducibility
- sourced values cited; analytical values reproducible from stated parameters
- Self-check
- 14 of 23 at evidence close; a fail on any item blocks release
- Review
- five passes scheduled before release (in Annex C)
- Publisher of record
- The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) for the Nexus Consortium
- Corrections
- Registry correction pathway; upheld corrections are published as notices with a new version
Notes
Numbers are the edition’s reference numbers, so a note reads the same in every chapter. The full list, with every source and its licence, is in Annex C. Annex C, references
- 1NSIDC (ed.), Arctic sea ice has likely reached its minimum extent for 2025 (Sea Ice Today analysis, relayed by CIRES; minimum 4.60 million km² on 10 September 2025; tenth lowest in the 47-year record). National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 2US National Ice Center (ed.), Arctic Sea Ice at Minimum and Maximum Extents, 2025 to 2026 (press release; USNIC 3-day minimum 4.86 million km² in September 2025; 2026 maximum 14.53 million km² on 6 to 8 March by USNIC and 14.29 million km² on 15 March by NSIDC). US National Ice Center, Suitland. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 7NSIDC (ed.), Sea Ice Today analyses (Antarctic maximum 17.81 million km² on 17 September 2025, third lowest; Antarctic minimum 1.98 million km² on 1 March 2025, tied second lowest). National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 3NOAA (ed.), Arctic Report Card 2025 (summary page; air temperature, sea ice, precipitation and Greenland ice sheet findings). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 6NASA (ed.), Global Mean Sea Level (key indicator page; 115.2 mm rise since 1993; current rate 4.4 mm a year). National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Pasadena. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 5WMO (ed.), 2025 set to be second or third warmest year on record (update for COP30; sea level rate from 2.1 mm a year in 1993 to 2002 to 4.1 mm a year in 2016 to 2025; over 90% of excess energy in the ocean). World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 9National Oceanography Centre (ed.), Global Tipping Points Report 2025 reveals first Earth system tipping point reached (summary page; warm-water reefs passing their thermal tipping point, central estimate 1.2 °C, range 1 to 1.5 °C, warming about 1.4 °C; more than 160 scientists at 87 institutions). NOC, Southampton. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 10Stockholm Resilience Centre (ed.), Seven of nine planetary boundaries now breached (Planetary Health Check 2025 news page of 24 September 2025; ocean acidification breached for the first time; surface pH down about 0.1 units). Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 21Marine Stewardship Council (ed.), Five takeaways from the FAO SOFIA report 2026 (summary page of 19 June 2026; 62.4% of stocks sustainable against 64.5% two years earlier; 72.6% of landings from sustainable stocks; 235 million tonnes produced in 2024; trade USD 184 billion). MSC, London. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 16UNEP-WCMC and IUCN (eds.), Protected Planet, marine protected areas page (areas beyond national jurisdiction 61% of the ocean; 1.45% covered by protected areas and other effective area-based measures). UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 11United Nations (ed.), Agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (status page, UN Treaty Collection; entry into force 17 January 2026; 145 signatories and 105 parties as shown on the page when read). United Nations, New York. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 12WTO (ed.), Acceptances of the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement, Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (acceptance list; entry into force 15 September 2025; 123 acceptances; latest date shown 20 July 2026). World Trade Organization, Geneva. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 17European Space Agency (ed.), ESA Space Environment Report 2026 (report page of 14 September 2026; data to end 2025; health index from about 4 to about 50; more than 300 launches and over 4,000 payloads in 2025). ESA, Darmstadt. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 42NOAA (ed.), NOAA advances review of first-ever deep seabed mining commercial recovery application (news release of 19 August 2026; application submitted 6 February 2026; found in full compliance with the information requirements of the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act; opened as a pre-close source for [14]). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 41Herbert (ed.), MEPC ES2 Meeting Brief (law-firm briefing page dated 2026-01-20; adjournment of the Net-Zero Framework session by a vote of 57 in favour, 49 against and 21 abstentions after a one-year adjournment motion; opened as a pre-close source for [13]). Herbert, law-firm briefing. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
- 8NOAA (ed.), NOAA confirms 4th global coral bleaching event (news release of 15 April 2024; bleaching documented from February 2023 to April 2024). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back