Nice (France), June 10 (IANS) With five years left to meet the world’s “30 by 30” conservation goal and an urgent need to improve the management of marine ecosystems, the underway 2025 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) presents an opportunity for governments to make progress on global agreements that can ensure the protection and sustainable use of the ocean and its resources for generations.
Scientists warn that since the 2015 Paris Agreement was signed, the world has added the energy equivalent of nearly two billion atom bombs such as “Little Boy” to the ocean.
The result, the ocean heat content in 2025 to a depth of 2000 metres was about 104 zettajoules more than in 2015, equivalent to about 1.7 billion atom bombs, about five bombs per second.
Global daily sea ice hit a record low in February 2025.
The maximum sea ice extent and volume in both 2023 and 2024 was also dramatically below the extent of previous years.
Antarctic sea ice may have entered an entirely new, smaller state, as the 2023 and 2024 winter maximum sea ice extents were so far below previous years.
2025 Antarctic sea ice is also well below historical averages for both extent and volume.
The Antarctic sea ice summer minimum extents from 2022-2025 were the lowest in history, around half of the average, and the Antarctic sea ice low in 2023 was calculated to be possible only once in 2,650 years without climate change.
Arctic sea ice reached its lowest volume ever in March 2025, after decades of decline.
Sea levels reached a record high in 2024 — and the rate of sea level rise has increased since 2015.
Sea level rise would take 100s to 1,000s of years to reverse, even if we started now.
At the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in the southern French city of Nice, two major marine conservation coalitions in the Mediterranean — Med Sea Alliance and Together for the Med — representing more than 70 local and regional organisations, have joined forces to call on world leaders to accelerate actions for marine conservation and restoration in the Mediterranean.
“This isn’t just about saving nature: it’s about restoring balance between people and the planet,” said Karlijn Steinbusch, Director of the Med Sea Alliance.
“We already have regional commitments. We know marine protection pays off. What we need now is political action — stronger, better-funded, and more meaningful marine protection.”
“The sea doesn’t recognise borders,” said Margaux Janin, Coordinator of Together for the Med.
“We need to include all voices, with collaboration that moves beyond geographical boundaries. Scientists, fishers, and NGOs are all demanding the same healthy future for our shared sea.”
The Mediterranean Sea is a vital pillar of the region’s environmental integrity, regional food security and socio-economic resilience.
Its waters support immense biodiversity — more than 17,000 marine species, representing 18 per cent of the known species worldwide — and the livelihoods of millions, particularly in coastal communities.
More than 700,000 jobs and more than €20 billion in revenue are generated annually by fisheries and marine aquaculture in the Mediterranean and Black Sea region, underlining the sea’s immense value not just ecologically, but also economically.
Sadly, the Mediterranean is warming three times faster than the global ocean average, threatening not only biodiversity but also the livelihoods of millions who depend on its waters.
In this context, UNOC3 provides a pivotal platform to unite diverse stakeholders — from national governments and marine scientists, to small-scale fishing communities and NGOs — around evidence-based solutions, proving that regional cooperation can deliver both ecological recovery and effective community management.
At the UNOC, the G20 Coral Research and Development Accelerator Platform (CORDAP) and The Earthshot Prize on Tuesday announced the launch of a joint global Coral Innovation Search to fast-track solutions for coral reef protection and restoration.
The new strategic partnership was unveiled aboard OceanXplorer, a research and media vessel operated by OceanX, during a high-level side event at the UNOC.
The event brought together global voices from venture capital, corporate, investment and philanthropic organisations — including musician and ocean advocate James Blunt and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau Jr. — to discuss the urgent need to mobilise resources and innovation to safeguard a future for corals.
On Monday, the UNOC’s opening day, High Seas Alliance congratulated progress on the historic number of ratifications for the High Seas Treaty that have just been deposited, bringing the treaty much closer to the critical threshold of 60 ratifications needed for its entry into force.
At a special High Seas Treaty event organised especially for the conference, 18 countries deposited their instruments of ratification.
Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Malta, Vietnam, Jamaica, Albania, Bahamas, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Fiji, Mauritania, Vanuatu, Greece and Jordan now joined the 31 countries plus the European Union that have already deposited their ratification prior to the conference.
This brings the total number of country ratifications to 49.
An additional 17 countries also signed the treaty, marking their intention to ratify it in the future, taking the total number of signatories to 134.
The treaty, formally titled the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), officially opened for signing and ratification in September 2023.
France, co-hosting the UN Ocean Conference with Costa Rica, has made accelerating treaty ratification a key deliverable, and has played a key diplomatic role in driving progress ahead of the conference.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at [email protected])
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