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The ocean is a vital driver of global commerce, climate regulation, and economic resilience — but it faces mounting pressure from pollution, climate change, and underinvestment.
At the 2025 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, UNCTAD will actively engage across both the Blue Zone and Green Zone to highlight the role of trade in building a more sustainable and inclusive ocean economy.
In the Blue Zone, UNCTAD will co-organise official side events and take part in high-level discussions — including the Ocean Action Panel on “Advancing Sustainable Ocean-Based Economies, Sustainable Maritime Transport, and Coastal Community Resilience: Leaving No One Behind.” Here, Secretary-General, Ms. Rebeca Grynspan, will speak on inclusive trade, resilient blue value chains, and the need for global cooperation to ensure that no one is left behind.
In the Green Zone, UNCTAD will host its first-ever Ocean House under the theme 'Trade and Sustainable Systems for Food from Our Oceans'. The Ocean House will spotlight how trade can support sustainable ocean-based food systems. It will bring together policymakers, experts, innovators, and the public to explore solutions, showcase successful initiatives, and promote collaboration around global policy frameworks.
This builds on the outcomes of the 5th UN Ocean Forum, co-chaired by France and Costa Rica in March 2025. The Forum produced 15 action-oriented recommendations to diversify ocean economies, enhance maritime resilience, accelerate decarbonisation, and improve access to finance and technology. With over 80 per cent of global trade by volume carried by sea, and marine food systems essential to food security, nutrition, and livelihoods, trade is central to the future of sustainable ocean development.
Rebeca Grynspan, of Costa Rica, became UNCTAD's eighth Secretary-General on 13 September 2021 and is the first woman to lead the organization.
Prior to her UNCTAD appointment, she was the Ibero-American secretary-general from 2014 to 2021, also the first woman to head the organization. During her mandate, she has coordinated the 22-member Iberoamerican Conference and led four key summits of Heads of State and Government.
In 2010 she was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and prior to that was UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Grynspan served as Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. She was also Minister of Housing, Minister Coordinator of Economic and Social Affairs, and Deputy Minister of Finance. In 2021 she was named Special International Advisor to the newly created Economic and Social Council of Argentina and invited to join as member of the G20 High-Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
In addition to her experience as a lecturer and advisor to several international organizations, she has been actively involved in key United Nations initiatives, such as the Millennium Project's Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development and the High-level Panel on Financing for Development.
In 2014 and 2015, she was recognized as one of the 50 leading intellectuals of Latin America. And she was recognized as one of the 100 most powerful women in Central America by Forbes magazine.
Ms Grynspan holds a degree in Economics by the University of Costa Rica and a MSc in Economics by the University of Sussex. She has been awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Salamanca, the University of Extremadura and the European University of Madrid in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements.
Luz Maria de la Mora is the Director of UNCTAD's Division on International Trade and Commodities. As a former Vice-Minister for International Trade and decades of government and private sector positions, Ms. de la Mora developed a career in international trade policy, negotiation, operations, and trade promotion.
During her tenure as Vice-Minister for International Trade of Mexico from 2018 to 2022, Ms. de la Mora led Mexico's trade and investment policy, overseeing fourteen free trade agreements with 51 countries. To bolster Mexico's development, she steered discussions in the World Trade Organization, the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Pacific Alliance, among others. She also coordinated policy dialogues and handled private sector consultations.
Ms. de la Mora holds a PhD in Political Science from Yale University, USA, a Master's degree in International Affairs from Carleton University, Canada, and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México, Mexico.
She is fluent in English and Spanish, and proficient in French.
Chantal Line Carpentier joined UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s Division on International Trade and Commodities (DITC) in 2014, after serving as Chief, UNCTAD New York Office of the Secretary-General. She brings to the Branch over 25 years of work experience in international trade, and environmental and agro-economics.
Prior to working with UNCTAD, she supported the Commission on Sustainable Development and served as Major Groups (of non-State actors) coordinator for the UN Rio+20 Conference and the SDGs negotiations at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). She also supported the sustainable consumption and production and sustainable agriculture negotiations.
As Head of the North American Free Trade Agreement Commission for Environmental Cooperations, she lead work on the nexus of environment, economy, and trade. She also served as Agro-environmental Policy Analyst for Winrock International, and post-Doctoral fellow/Brazil office manager for the International Food Policy Research Institute.
She has an extensive list of publications on sustainable agriculture, trade and environment, sustainable consumption and production, financing for sustainable development, stakeholder engagement, global value chains, micro, small and medium enterprises, and economic empowerment of women.
She obtained a PhD. in Agro-Environmental Economics from Virginia Technology and MSc. and BSc. from McGill University.
David Vivas Eugui is Chief (a.i) of the Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development Branch at UNCTAD.
Previously, he was a Senior Economic Affairs Officer in UNCTAD’s Trade Negotiations and Commercial Diplomacy Branch, Deputy Programmes Director at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Attaché for Legal Affairs at the Mission of Venezuela to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Staff Attorney at the Venezuelan Institute of Foreign Trade. David is an international expert with more than 20 years of experience on legal and economic issues.
He has worked as an advisor and consultant for various institutions, international and national organizations and has lectured on intellectual property, trade, oceans economy and environmental law at the University of Strasbourg (CEIPI), Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina), Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), Maastricht University (the Netherlands), WIPO Distant Learning Academy, and University of Business and International Studies (Switzerland).
He holds a JD from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, an LLM from Georgetown University and a Master in Transnational Business from the Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Regina Asariotis is Chief (a.i.) of the Trade Logistics Branch in the Division on Technology and Logistics of UNCTAD. She is also Chief of the Policy and Legislation Section, with responsibility for work on transport law and policy.
This includes extensive research, expert dialogue and technical cooperation on implications of climate change for maritime transport and trade, with focus on climate change impacts and adaptation for seaports and other critical transport infrastructure, including in SIDS. Before joining UNCTAD in 2001, Regina was a Senior Lecturer in Maritime Law at the University of Southampton. She holds a German law degree, an LL.M, as well as a PhD from the University of Hamburg and is a Barrister (England & Wales) and Attorney at Law (Greece), as well as Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb).
Henrique Pacini is an economist at the United Nations in Geneva, where he works on trade and circular economy issues. He has a degree in economics from the University of São Paulo, a Masters in European Studies from Hochschule Bremen, Germany, and a Ph.D in Energy Technology from KTH, Sweden.
He recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where he examined the commercial dynamics of secondary/scrap materials in world trade, and co-chaired Harvard’s first Circular Economy Symposium. Dr. Pacini published over 60 articles on environment, energy, trade and development issues.
