A Look Back at the UN Ocean Conference
In his closing remarks to the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), Christian Estrosi, mayor of the host city of Nice, France, made a bold prediction about how the conference will be viewed years from now: “In the future people will say that it was in Nice where things started to shift.”
The reason for Estrosi’s optimism was evident well before UNOC3 was gaveled open by co-hosts France and Costa Rica with a delegation from WHOI in attendance. The week before the main conference, which ran from June 9-13, the French research organizations CNRS and Ifremer convened the One Ocean Science Congress. The Congress attracted more than 2,000 scientists from around the world, including WHOI senior scientist Susan Wijffels, Marine Policy Center director Kilaparti Ramakrishna, and Exploring Ocean Iron Solutions (ExOIS) project manager Paul Morris to organize activities such as a dialogue on ocean observations chaired and moderated by Ramakrishna to generate science-based recommendations that would guide discussions at UNOC3.
On June 7, more than 400 mayors, municipal administrators, and heads of island nations representing a total population of more than one billion people held the Ocean Rise and Resilience Coalition Summit organized by the city of Nice and the Ocean Climate Platform. By building on a 2024 workshop and report to the UN General Assembly on the urgent need to build resilience at local, regional, national, and global level, they laid the groundwork for coordinated, science-based adaptation measures and financing mechanisms to confront the threat of sea-level rise around the world.
And on June 7 and 8, the Blue Economy & Finance Forum co-organized by the Principality of Monaco, the Monaco Oceanographic Institute, and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation convened in Monaco with nearly 2,000 people, including members of the WHOI delegation, to explore new ways to finance ocean-based solutions and the blue economy.
The main conference itself built on this early momentum, attracting more than 70 world leaders, an additional 50-plus ministers, and 30 heads of UN agencies, as well as leaders of philanthropic organizations, financial institutions, civil society, non-profit groups, and scientific organizations had gathered. To this, WHOI President & Director Peter de Menocal added his voice as part of the first day’s proceedings by participating in the kick-off “Ocean Action Panel” focusing on conserving, sustainably managing and restoring marine and coastal ecosystems. In his remarks, de Menocal pointed to the growing coalition of partners in the Ocean Pavilion at UN climate conferences since the previous UNOC meeting in Portugal as an example of the kinds of broad-based, multi-sectoral partnerships needed to address the challenges facing the ocean today. “What began as a shared vision in Lisbon has grown into a coalition and collaboration of more than 40 institutions, working across science, industry, philanthropy, and civil society to bring ocean issues to the forefront at the UN and at the Rio Convention Conferences of the Parties,” he told gathered officials and dignitaries. “Partnerships like these are no longer optional. They are the foundation for action that is the theme of our time together in Nice.”
WHOI staff also appeared on panels as part of official side events inside and outside the central Blue Zone of the conference, including a side event organized by WHOI, Ifremer, and the global shipping leader CMA CGM about the importance of plankton to marine biodiversity featuring de Menocal and Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna also moderated a discussion organized by ExOIS about iron fertilization as a means of removing excess carbon from the atmosphere, as well as a panel on the last day of the conference about the importance of protecting the ocean twilight zone. In addition, WHOI associate scientist Dan Zitterbart presented solutions he has developed to protect emperor penguins in Antarctica and to reduce whale deaths caused by ship strikes. The third day of the conference saw a note of pomp injected into the WHOI
agenda, when de Menocal awarded the Institution’s new Centennial Medal to His Serene Highness, Prince Albert II of Monaco with Secretary John Kerry and other leaders of the oceanographic community in attendance. The medal recognizes Prince Albert II’s extraordinary work to raise awareness, inspire action, and advance ocean science and technology for the global good. "It is truly a great honour to stand before you today to accept WHOI’s Centennial Medal from such a renowned institution, one that has constantly advanced our understanding of the ocean for almost a century,” he said. “This medal holds a great symbolic significance for me. It embodies the long-standing tradition of Monaco in favour of the promotion of oceanographic sciences, in the footsteps of my great-great-grandfather, Prince Albert the 1st."
When UNOC3 closed to a chorus of horns from the fleet of research vessels assembled in Nice Harbor, there was a long list of accomplishments for attendees point to. The High Seas Treaty, also known as Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement garnered an additional 20 ratifications, putting it within 10 of the 60 necessary to trigger its entry into force. Several countries announced new marine protected areas (MPAs), including French Polynesia, which declared the entirety of its 1.9 million square mile exclusive economic zone off-limits to extractive activities like bottom trawling and deep seabed mining, making it the largest MPA in the world. Deep-sea mining was also the focus of a coalition calling for a “precautionary pause” on the practice, further highlighting international desire for
more clarity on potential impacts of mining activities on seafloor and midwater ecosystems. Private financial institutions led the way in making nearly $10 billion new investments in ocean conservation, which, while noteworthy, is still a small addition to existing commitments of the same amount towards the estimated $175 billion per year to meet the goals of Sustainable Development Goal 14 to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. More than 90 countries signed the “Nice wake up call for an ambitious plastics treaty” to invigorate discussions ahead of the final round of negotiations scheduled for August in Geneva to finalize an agreement aimed at regulating plastics from production to use to disposal.
In all, the third UN Ocean Conference sets a high bar for the next gathering, scheduled for 2028 in South Korea. Whether it meets the measure of setting a before-Nice/after-Nice scenario Mayor Estrosi envisioned is yet to be determined, but the progress achieved over the first two weeks in June will certainly help invigorate efforts to protect the ocean that protects all life on Earth.