The 2025 UN Ocean Conference offers a pivotal chance to shore up a more sustainable blue economy for ocean health and shared prosperity.
© Shutterstock/Vadim Petrakov | Women repair fishing nets in Bac Lieu City, Vietnam.
Covering 70% of Earth’s surface, the ocean is essential for all life as it absorbs carbon, stabilizes the climate and nurtures biodiversity.
The ocean is also a backbone of the global economy. An estimated 600 million livelihoods and 100 million jobs – the vast majority of them in developing countries – depend on ocean-based sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture and tourism.
But major challenges are afoot in the ocean, with climate change, overfishing, pollution on the rise and fragmented governance struggling to keep up.
The world has a pivotal chance to change course at the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in June.
In the lead-up to the conference, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) spoke to various government leaders, diplomats and policy experts.
Here’re some key insights from them, on what the world can do collectively and urgently to foster a sustainable ocean economy, driving growth in a way that benefits people and the planet.
More investments, stronger governance
Underfunding is hampering global action on Sustainable Development Goal 14, which seeks to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resource.
Achieving this global goal requires $175 billion annually, but only $30 billion has been disbursed since 2010.
Meanwhile, $22 billion in harmful fishing subsidies continue to fuel overfishing and marine ecosystem destruction, putting future growth and livelihoods at risk.
“We have to have very robust regulatory framework to balance the economic and the climate change challenges,” said Lídia Bulcão, Secretary of State for Maritime Affairs of Portugal.
“We have to put the ocean, biodiversity and climate nexus as a central piece of all public policies for the ocean economy.”
To enhance global ocean governance, more countries need to ratify the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, before the instrument can enter into force.
Equally important is to conclude a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution and eliminate harmful fishing subsidies.
Earlier in March, the 5th UN Ocean Forum also urged a “New Blue Deal” to drastically scale up public and private investment in sustainable ocean sectors.
Decarbonization: Ocean for climate-resilient development
Trade is part of the solution to sustainable ocean development, given that more than 80% of world trade volume is carried by sea.
With key maritime chokepoints increasingly under pressure from factors like geopolitical tensions and climate change, there have been urgent calls to build the sustainability and resilience of maritime transport, including shipping, port infrastructure, operations and logistics.
“Decarbonizing shipping is, in my view, the element that will most quickly help realigning ocean benefits and the expansion of global trade,” said Pascal Lamy, who led the World Trade Organization between 2005 and 2013, and currently serves as vice-president of the Paris Peace Forum – a France-based non-profit organization working to “reinvent diplomacy in a changing world” for lasting prosperity.
More work is needed to scale up innovative solutions and reduce the cost of low-carbon and climate adaptation measures and technologies. Partnerships with businesses, industry, financial institutions and local communities will be crucial to catalyzing progress in this regard.
Multilateral cooperation matters more than ever
The 3rd UN Ocean Conference, coming up Nice, France, will centre around the theme “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean”.
This conference, organized in partnership with France and Costa Rica, will build on previous UN Ocean Conferences, hosted by Sweden and Fiji in 2017 in New York and by Portugal and Kenya in 2022 in Lisbon.
It seeks to rally global support from wide-ranging actors, including governments, businesses, academia, civil society, indigenous peoples, international organizations and more.
Arnoldo André, Costa Rica’s foreign minister, expressed hope that the conference will provide “strong support with concrete action plans that can be replicated between countries to accelerate good practices in the sustainable management of our ocean".
The sentiment is echoed by Thani Mohamed Soilihi, Minister of State for Francophonie and International Partnerships of France.
“Multilateralism has a key role to play in meeting the challenge,” the minister underscored, “Moving forward together is crucial for our common future.”