What was the result of the UN Oceans Conference?
The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) drew to a close Nice yesterday following five days of high-level meetings between governments, experts, climate campaigners and community representatives.
More than 15,000 delegates took part in the week-long summit, including more than 60 heads of state and government.
By the end of the summit, more than 170 countries adopted a political declaration entitled 'Our ocean, our future: united for urgent action' (also known as the 'Nice Ocean Action Plan'), committing to urgent action on conserving and sustainably using the world's ocean.
The main goals of the declaration include expanding marine protection areas, limiting marine pollution and increasing financial aid for coastal and island nations.
Speaking to reporters at yesterday's closing press conference, Li Junhua, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and UNOC3 Secretary-General, said the pledges made at Nice "must be rigorously implemented, tracked, and scaled".
More than 800 new voluntary commitments were made by countries in the lead up to, and during, the summit, co-hosted by France and Costa Rica.
Highlights included the European Union's new Ocean Pact - a €1bn commitment from the European Commission to protect marine life and strengthening the blue economy - and French Polynesia's commitment to create the world's largest marine protected area, encompassing about five million sq.km.
The 'High Ambition Coalition for a Quiet Ocean', a club of 37 countries, co-led by Canada and Panama and which includes Ireland, was also launched at UNOC3 to campaign for a reduction in underwater noise pollution.
Germany launched a €100m action plan to clear World War II-era munitions in the Baltic Sea and North Sea, while, Indonesia and the World Bank launched a 'Coral Bond', a new financial instrument to raise private capital to conserve coral reef ecosystems in Indonesia's marine protected zones.
A key objective of UNOC3 was to get more countries to sign and ratify the so-called High Seas Treaty, shorthand for the not-so-easily-named United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction.
The treaty aims to create marine protection zones in international waters, to curb overfishing and safeguard marine ecosystems.
Nineteen countries ratified the treaty during UNOC3, bringing the total number of ratifications to 50.
Sixty ratification are required in order for the treaty to come into force at UN level.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin told RTÉ News at UNOC3 last Monday that Ireland would ratify the treaty.
Olivier Poivre D'Arvor, French special envoy at UNOC3, said, "what was decided in Nice cannot be undone. No illegal path is acceptable".
Nine-five countries also supported a French initiative at the summit to limit plastic production and consumption, ahead of the next round of talks in Geneva in August to iron out the terms of a global plastics treaty.
According to the UN, up to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic ends enters the oceans and seas each year. That is the equivalent of a bin truck every minute.
However, it was not all plain sailing in Nice.
The United States did not send a high-ranking delegation to the summit.
Such a move was hardly surprising given US President Donald Trump's recent executive order to fast-track the permit process for deep sea mining licences in US and international waters, a relatively new technique that involves dredging the seafloor with a pump to extract metals and minerals.
In contrast, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, when referring to deep sea mining during his speech to UNOC3 delegates on Monday, said "the deep sea cannot become the Wild West".
French President Emmanuel Macron had also called for a moratorium on deep sea mining during his opening speech at the summit.
This week has shown that the current US administration is at odds with most of the world's governments when it comes to protecting the world's oceans.
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