The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) concluded in Nice, France, last week with growing momentum for urgent and coordinated global action to protect the world’s oceans.
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Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, the UN Conference convened to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 – to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources – drew over 15,000 participants from 120 countries. These included 55 heads of state and government – three times the number who attended the previous summit in Lisbon in 2022, making it the largest ocean-focused diplomatic gathering in UN history.
“Never before have so many world leaders come together to talk about the ocean,” said French President Emmanuel Macron at the opening of the summit. “To win this battle, we must renew our collective efforts… If the Earth is warming, the ocean is boiling.”
Ahead of the summit, naturalist David Attenborough drummed up global attention to the plight of the oceans with the premiere of his latest documentary, Ocean with David Attenborough, which debuted on his 99th birthday. “If we save the sea, we save our world,” he said, noting that despite the ocean’s vast importance, less than 3 per cent is effectively protected. “The ocean’s power of regeneration is remarkable – if we just offer it the chance.”
Despite the ocean’s crucial role in regulating the climate, supporting biodiversity and sustaining economies, SDG 14 remains the least funded of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, noted UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs Li Junhua in the lead up to UNOC3.
Achieving it by 2030 will require an estimated US$175 billion per year. “But less than US$10 billion was allocated between 2015 and 2019,” said Li. “We must move ocean funding from trickle to torrent.”
The World Database on Protected Areas estimates that just over 8 per cent of the ocean is currently designated as protected. However, the Marine Conservation Institute warns that many of these areas still permit harmful activities like bottom trawling, or exist only on paper without real enforcement. In reality, less than 3 per cent of the ocean is effectively protected.
A recent study by National Geographic and Dynamic Planet found that to meet the “30x30” Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework target of protecting 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030, 85 new marine protected areas would need to be designated every day for the next five years.
While member states did not reach the goal of ratifying the High Seas Treaty in Nice, the summit ended with the unanimous adoption of a political declaration titled Our ocean, our future: united for urgent action. The declaration reaffirmed the ocean’s vital role in regulating the climate and supporting biodiversity. It also sounded the alarm on the worsening ocean crisis, warning that progress on SDG 14 remains far off track.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) secretary-general Mathias Cormann said that if the ocean economy were a country, it would already rank as the world’s fifth largest. In 2023 alone, ocean-based industries – such as fisheries, tourism, shipping, and marine energy – made up over 7 per cent of global trade, valued at US$2.2 trillion.
However, much of the public funding for fisheries may be doing more harm than good. According to the OECD, 65 per cent of the US$10.7 billion that governments spent on fisheries each year from 2020 to 2022 could be supporting unsustainable practices.
“The time for incremental progress is over. We need billions, not millions, in investment,” said UN’s Li.
Eco-Business spotlights five issues that came under the spotlight at UNOC3:
High Seas Treaty nears entry into force
At UNOC3, a major milestone was reached for the High Seas Treaty with 19 new ratifications announced, bringing the total to 50. Just 10 more are needed for it to enter into force.
Formally known as the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, or BBNJ, the treaty, adopted in 2023, aims to protect biodiversity in two-thirds of the ocean that lies beyond national jurisdictions.
At Nice, Indonesia and Vietnam were among the new supporters of the accord. However, Southeast Asian neighbours Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand have yet to ratify the treaty, although they have signed the BBNJ agreement. Malaysia is not a signatory to the BBNJ agreement.
In 2023, Singapore helped to broker an agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity outside national jurisdictions, paving the way for marine protected areas to be established in waters outside national jurisdictions, which cover over two-thirds of the oceans. The city-state has also ratified the BBNJ agreement last September.
UN secretary-general António Guterres urged countries to act swiftly, warning: “The deep seabed cannot become the Wild West.”
Similarly, Macron called for a global moratorium on deep-sea mining, calling it “madness” to proceed without regulation. “The deep sea is not for sale,” said the French head of state.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also warned against “unilateral exploitation,” referencing moves by the US to accelerate seabed mining activities outside global frameworks.
Calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining until more is known about its environmental impact have been mounting. Slovenia, Latvia, Cyprus and the Marshall Islands joined the rank of countries in support of the ban, bringing the total number of countries to 37. The International Seabed Authority (ISA), which governs mining in international waters, is slated to reconvene next month.
Small islands inequality
At the summit, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) highlighted their outsized efforts in ocean conservation and called for greater international support.
“We have done our part,” said Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr, citing the country’s shark sanctuary, ban on deep-sea mining and designation of 50 per cent of its waters as a marine sanctuary. “But leadership without partnership is not enough.”
Vietnam’s prime minister Pham Minh Chinh, speaking on behalf of the Asean regional group, said: “The ocean must remain a realm of peace, cooperation and shared responsibility… Stability at sea is the foundation of prosperity on land.”
Timor-Leste’s deputy prime minister Francisco Kalbuadi Lay stressed that “intergenerational justice means ensuring a healthy environmental future for the generations to come,” and said it is “unjust to demand the same commitment from all countries.”
Despite growing commitments, however, ocean protection remains underfunded. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) president Razan Al Mubarak said less than 1 per cent of global biodiversity and climate finance reaches marine ecosystems.
As the summit concluded, New Zealand pledged US$52 million for Pacific ocean governance. Canada committed US$9 million for nature-based solutions in coastal regions, while Indonesia launched a coral bond to finance reef protection with the World Bank.
Small-scale fishers and Indigenous ocean defenders
The conference also highlighted the role of small-scale fishers and Indigenous communities in ocean stewardship.
“If we fully understood our connection to the sea, we would see it as the backbone of identity and culture,” said Grethel Aguilar, IUCN director-general.
With nearly 40 per cent of global marine fish stocks overexploited, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) officials championed regenerative aquaculture and called for stronger safeguards against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
“Small-scale fishers are not the problem – they are essential to the solution,” said Jörn Schmidt of global nonprofit WorldFish.
Vietnam’s deputy prime minister Bui Thanh Son warned that climate change and biodiversity loss already threaten Southeast Asia’s fisheries-dependent economies.
“Sustainable management is critical to fighting poverty and driving development,” he said.
Global Plastics Treaty push
With negotiators set to reconvene in August in Geneva to finalise a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty, following a stalled round in 2024, stakeholders used UNOC3 as a platform to champion the accord ahead of the next round of negotiations.
“By the time I conclude my remarks today, five more garbage trucks’ worth of plastic will enter the ocean,” said Janis Searles Jones, CEO of Ocean Conservancy. “Plastics are even being pulled into the deep sea alongside carbon.”
Rodrigo Chaves Robles, President of Costa Rica and co-president of the Conference, warned that in 25 years, there would be more plastics than fish in the ocean.
“We are choking with plastic,” said Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, head of the UN plastics treaty process. “If we don’t act, no ecosystem will be spared.”
Shipping reforms and a quieter ocean
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) announced measures to reduce plastic discharge and underwater noise, and previewed its upcoming Net-Zero Framework to cut emissions.
“Clean fuels and energy-efficient vessels are essential for a greener maritime sector,” said IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez.
Thirty-seven countries also launched the High Ambition Coalition for a Quiet Ocean – the first global initiative to tackle ocean noise pollution.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s latest State of the Ocean report painted a stark picture: record-high temperatures, rising sea levels, growing dead zones, and accelerating acidification.
“The signs of the ocean in distress are all around us,” said UN Ocean Envoy Peter Thomson. “The time of debating with denialists is over.”
With Belém set to host the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP30 in November, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged nations to “bank on multilateralism” amid the ocean crisis.
“The ocean is feverish,” he said. “Saving the planet is for humanity’s sake.”
“The momentum we have generated must carry us forward to COP30 and national decision-making, and translate into decisive national action,” said UN under-secretary-general Li.
