(VOVWORLD) - The 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) will take place from Monday to Friday next week in Nice, France. The meeting aims to forge global consensus and mobilize funding for marine conservation efforts amid ongoing international disagreements on deep-sea mining, plastic pollution, and overfishing.
 The Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, July 1, 2022. (File photo: REUTERS/Rodrigo Antunes) |
Host France expects to welcome 70 heads of state, business leaders, international donors, and ocean activists. The overarching objective is to reach an agreement on mobilizing financial resources to conserve and sustainably use marine resources, and implementing Sustainable Development Goal 14 on Life Below Water.
The importance of international cooperation in ocean conservation
It is projected that by 2030, the ocean economy will exceed 3 trillion USD, making it the world’s fifth-largest economy. Therefore, protecting the oceans is not only about safeguarding ecosystems but also about securing livelihoods. In recent years, the international community has acknowledged this reality and placed greater emphasis on marine conservation.
In 2022, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted, aiming to restore and protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and sea areas by 2030.
In 2023, the High Seas Treaty was launched, a critical milestone in safeguarding marine ecosystems.
“About 64% of the ocean is considered the high seas. That means it's beyond national jurisdiction. Each state has an exclusive economic zone, which is about 200 nautical miles. So everything outside of that is considered the high seas,” Minna Epps, Head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Ocean Team, said.
“We are learning much more now how important the role of the ocean, both in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The ocean has been under tremendous threat from plastic pollution and overfishing, and also very stressed by climate change implications. We need the ocean, the species, and the ecosystem.”
But turning commitments into action is a challenge. Recent studies warn that the global target of turning 30% of the ocean into protected areas by 2030, as outlined in the Kunming-Montreal Framework, is looking doubtful. So far only about 2.7% of the ocean is under protection.
The High Seas Treaty has yet to receive the necessary 60 ratifications to enter into force.
High hopes for UNOC3
Just ahead of the conference, six EU members announced their ratification of the High Seas Treaty, bringing the total number of ratifying countries to 28.France has set the ambitious goal of reaching the required 60 ratifications during the conference.
“What we expect is to have the right people around the table with the right issue, but more with the right outcomes. I've been in several conferences where they speak a lot and there are no action at all. And at the end, some commitments were supposed to save the ocean,” French Ocean Envoy Olivier Poivre d’Arvor said.
“In fact, each year, the ocean is still in danger. What we need to release is what we call the Nice ocean agreement. Part of that will be devoted to the blue and finance issue. So we have to know exactly who can finance. Is that public finance? Yes, it has to be. For the science, there is an issue which is not so easy in fact, especially in this time, in those times.”
The Green Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco pledged to bring together heads of state, business leaders, and financiers to invest in a green economy and sustainable maritime transport and innovative green finance instruments.
“We didn't want to create a forum for the sake of creating another international gathering or summit. Our intention was for once to bring on a B2B level, the real stakeholders that can move the needle when it comes to defining a new sustainable blue economy. So the concept is clear, is to work on tangible real world solutions to promote these innovative solutions that we desperately need to push and promote and accelerate the deployment of a sustainable blue economy,” Olivier Wenden, Vice President and CEO of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, said.
Costa Rica, co-host of UNOC3 with France, said they expect to mobilize 100 billion USD in public and private commitments at the conference, along with clear timelines, budgets, and monitoring mechanisms.
The expected adoption of the Nice Ocean Declaration will pave the way for a new mechanism to finance marine conservation efforts and accelerate global actions to ensure the sustainable protection of the oceans.