• The Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) concluded in Nice in France on June 13. 

• Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, the five-day event brought 15,000 participants, including more than 60 Heads of State and Government, to France’s Mediterranean coast.

• With over 450 side events and nearly one lakh visitors, the gathering built on the momentum of previous ocean summits in New York (2017) and Lisbon (2022). 

• It culminated in a shared call to expand marine protection, curb pollution, regulate the high seas, and unlock financing for vulnerable coastal and island nations.

• More than 170 countries adopted by consensus a sweeping political declaration promising urgent action to protect the ocean.

• One of the conference’s main objectives was to accelerate progress on the High Seas Treaty — known as the BBNJ agreement — adopted in 2023 to safeguard marine life in international waters. As many as 60  ratifications are needed for it to enter into force. Over the past week, 19 countries ratified the accord, bringing the total number to 50.

• The BBNJ Agreement is a crucial legal instrument to protect marine life and ecosystems in the two-thirds of the ocean that lie beyond any country’s jurisdiction.  

• The political declaration adopted in Nice, titled ‘Our ocean, our future: united for urgent action’, reaffirms the goal of protecting 30 per cent of the ocean and land by 2030, while supporting global frameworks like the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Agreement (adopted in 2022, committing nations to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 through ambitious conservation targets and sustainable biodiversity management) and the UN International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) climate goals.

• It calls for concrete steps to expand marine protected areas, decarbonise maritime transport, combat marine pollution, and mobilise finance for vulnerable coastal and island nations, among others. 

Ambitious pledges

• The conference’s outcome, known as the Nice Ocean Action Plan, is a two-part framework that comprises a political declaration and over 800 voluntary commitments by governments, scientists, UN agencies, and civil society since the previous conference.

• The European Commission announced an investment of €1 billion to support ocean conservation, science, and sustainable fishing, while French Polynesia pledged to create the world’s largest marine protected area, encompassing its entire exclusive economic zone — about five million square kilometers.

• Germany launched a €100-million programme to remove underwater munitions from the Baltic and North Seas. 

• In addition, New Zealand committed $52 million to strengthen ocean governance in the Pacific, and Spain announced five new marine protected areas.

• A 37-country coalition led by Panama and Canada launched the High Ambition Coalition for a Quiet Ocean — the first high-level political initiative to tackle ocean noise pollution on a global scale.  

• Meanwhile, Indonesia and the World Bank introduced a ‘Coral Bond’ to help finance reef conservation in the country.

• Spain committed to creating five new marine protected areas that would allow protection of 25 per cent of its marine territory. 

• The fourth UN Ocean Conference, in 2028, will be co-hosted by Chile and the Republic of Korea.

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