Current placement and extent of MPAs will not provide substantial protections against projected climate change past 2050 , as the placement of MPAs has been driven more often by political expediency  than by managing key drivers of biodiversity loss  or climate-induced drivers . Only 3.5% of the area currently protected will provide refuges from both SST and deoxygenation by 2050 under both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 , and MPAs are more exposed to climate change under RCP8.5 than non-MPAs . Community thermal tolerances will be exceeded by 2050 in the tropics and by 2150 for many higher-latitude MPAs . Most MPA design has focused on the surface ocean, but MPAs are assumed to protect the entire water column and benthos. Climate-induced drivers  throughout the water column and rapidly accelerating climate velocities at depths below 200 m  are projected to affect virtually all North Atlantic deep-water and open-ocean area-based management zones in the next 20-50 years , and the conservation goals of benthic MPAs in the North Sea are not expected to be fulfilled . Heightened risk of non-indigenous species immigration from vessel traffic plus climate change further endangers MPA success , a particular concern in the Mediterranean , where the current MPA network is already highly vulnerable to climate change . This new evidence supports SROCC's high confidence assessment that present governance arrangements, including MPAs, are too fragmented to provide integrated responses to the increasing and cascading risks from climate change in the ocean .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report