Oceans and seas 2024-

UNDP Ocean Promise

High Seas Treaty
One Ocean – One Planet – One Treaty
The High Seas Alliance (HSA) sometimes uses the term “High Seas Treaty“ as a short-hand for the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). HSA acknowledges that the scope of the BBNJ Agreement encompasses all Areas beyond national jurisdiction, including the seafloor and water column. This choice of wording is intended to ease understanding for broad audiences and does not convey a prioritization among the components or principles of the BBNJ Agreement.

21 October
Bjorn Lomborg: Media reef madness a great barrier to good policy
Coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef fluctuates — a lot. But world media only seem to report when it declines, even if from record highs
Reading the news, you would believe the Great Barrier Reef — the aquatic wonder off Australia’s coast — is on its deathbed, bleached beyond recognition by climate change. Recent headlines shouted in unison: “Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record.” Environmental journalists are in panic mode about irreversible damage. But this is advocacy campaigning from media who consistently tell a negative story whatever the data say.
Impartial reporting would tell us the following: Since 1986, Australian scientists have measured yearly coral cover on the reef, meticulously tracking variations. Until the millennium, the reef was mostly stable, but in the early 2000s it started declining, and by 2012 it had shrunk to less than half its original cover. Unsurprisingly, reporting got more pessimistic. Researchers predicted climate change and warmer waters would halve the coral cover again by 2022, leaving it at almost nothing.
Then something surprising happened. The reef started improving. But the reporting didn’t. In fact, in 2014 the consistently climate-alarmed Guardian wrote the reef’s obituary. But over the next decade the reef rebounded spectacularly. By 2021, coral cover was higher than in any year since measurements began. …
5 August
Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record
(BBC) Parts of the Great Barrier Reef have suffered the largest annual decline in coral cover since records began nearly 40 years ago, according to a new report.
Northern and southern branches of the sprawling Australian reef both suffered their most widespread coral bleaching, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) found.
Reefs have been battered in recent months by tropical cyclones and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish that feast on coral, but heat stress driven by climate change is the predominant reason, AIMS said.
AIMS warns the habitat may reach a tipping point where coral cannot recover fast enough between catastrophic events and faces a “volatile” future.
23 October 2024
Bill Maher puts the fate of the Great Barrier Reef in the spotlight – but something’s missing from the soundbites
Graham Readfearn
Lomborg’s view, that the climate crisis is not the biggest threat to coral reefs everywhere, is shared by almost nobody actually researching the issue
(The Guardian) Climate change was “a problem”, the Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg told the comedian, but would only shave a few percentage points off global GDP by the end of the century and in any case, he said, by then people would be much richer anyway.
Was climate change a problem for the Great Barrier Reef? Lomborg pushed that aside too, saying pollution or overfishing were the reef’s real challenges. (They’re not.)
what’s missing from his soundbites?
Three degrees
A clip of Lomborg’s appearance on YouTube, was shared by the conservative commentator Dave Rubin (Rubin incorrectly described Lomborg as a climatologist – he is actually a political scientist and a director of a think tank).
In the clip, Lomborg said two climate economists, including the Nobel-winner William Nordhaus, had come to similar conclusions this year: that if the planet warmed by 3C by the end of the century, the effect on global GDP would be just two or three percentage points.
Nordhaus and others use what are known as Integrated Assessment Models. Peter Howard, a leading climate economist at New York University who researches IAMs, says “the devil is really in the details”. … Given that Lomborg cites Nordhaus, it is worth asking what the Yale University professor thinks about the climate emergency.
In an article published in 2019, the year after he won the Nobel, Nordhaus wrote that global heating “menaces our planet and looms over our future like a Colossus” and was “a major threat to humans and the natural world”.
Lomborg regaled Maher with data he said showed the amount of coral on the Great Barrier Reef “has been at the highest level” since records started in 1986, and had recovered from low levels seen five years ago.
He did not mention the reef had just been through probably its worst mass coral bleaching event on record.
The data cited by Lomborg was taken from underwater surveys carried out by the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
But the latest data from those surveys, Aims said this week, was “conducted before and during the recent mass bleaching event, one of the most serious and extensive on record”.
10 August 2020
A closer examination of the fantastical numbers in Bjorn Lomborg’s new book
By Bob Ward
(LSE) Bjorn Lomborg’s new book False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet attempts to convince readers that the impacts of climate change have been exaggerated, particularly by the media, and that much of the current effort to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions represents an over-reaction.
He has been characteristically energetic in persuading right-wing newspapers, particularly those owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, such as The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and The Australian, to advertise his book for free in their opinion columns.
But, like his previous contributions to this issue, Dr Lomborg’s arguments are based on fantastical numbers that have little or no credibility. Overall, the numbers presented by Dr Lomborg, who has a PhD in political science, understate the potential economic impacts of climate change and exaggerate the costs of cutting greenhouse gases. And he has promoted them apparently secure in the knowledge that they will not be fact-checked by book publishers or newspaper comment editors.

14 October
The New “High Seas Treaty” Hasn’t Even Entered into Force Yet, But Is Already Making a Difference
The world’s newest ocean treaty hasn’t taken effect yet—but it’s already changing how nations protect the high seas.
Mark Leon Goldberg
(Global Dispatches) On September 16th, Morocco became the 60th country to ratify the High Seas Treaty. This triggered a countdown to January, when the treaty will enter into force. And though this treaty has not yet even formally been established, it is already having an impact on ocean conservation according to my interview guest, Nichola Clark, Senior Officer for Ocean Governance at The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The High Seas Treaty establishes a rules of the road for international waters that are beyond the territorial jurisdiction of any single country, particularly around conservation and preserving ocean biodiversity. At the core of the High Seas Treaty are the establishment of marine protected areas — think of these like national parks, but for the high seas.
Our conversation is freely available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to shows.

13 June
David Attenborough’s Ocean is the film I’ve been waiting my whole career for – now the world must act on its message
George Monbiot
The documentary shows the damage that fishing does to our planet. So why does the industry still hold governments to ransom?

2025 UN Ocean Conference

9 – 13 June
The high-level 2025 United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development will be co-hosted by France and Costa Rica and held in Nice, France
The overarching theme of the Conference is “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean”. The Conference aims to support further and urgent action to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development and identify further ways and means to support the implementation of SDG 14. It will build on existing instruments to form successful partnerships towards the swift conclusion and effective implementation of ongoing processes that contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean.

High Seas Treaty gains momentum as 18 new countries pledge support
(AP) — Eighteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty on Monday, bringing the total to 49 — just 11 short of the 60 needed for the ocean agreement to enter into force. The surge in support, occurring during the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, France, adds momentum to what could become a historic shift in how the world governs the open ocean.
“The entry into force is within our sight, and I call on all remaining nations to join swiftly,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters Tuesday. “We do not have a moment to lose.”

UN ocean summit in Nice closes with wave of commitments
Ships in the port of Nice sounded their fog-horns on Friday, a brassy crescendo to a rare moment of global unity as the Third UN Ocean Conference drew to a close. Moments earlier, more than 170 countries had adopted by consensus a sweeping political declaration promising urgent action to protect the ocean.
(UN news) Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, the five-day event brought 15,000 participants, including more than 60 Heads of State and Government, to France’s Mediterranean coast.
With over 450 side events and nearly 100,000 visitors, the gathering, dubbed UNOC3, built on the momentum of previous ocean summits in New York (2017) and Lisbon (2022). It culminated in a shared call to expand marine protection, curb pollution, regulate the high seas, and unlock financing for vulnerable coastal and island nations.
UN ocean summit ends with boost for marine conservation, no mention of fossil fuels
(AFP) – The UN Ocean Conference in the southern French city of Nice concludes this Friday with countries taking steps towards marine protection and declaring a battle over deep sea-mining, but slammed for leaving fossil fuels off the agenda – the key driver of ocean warming. Nations hoping for new financial pledges to help with battling rising sea levels and overfishing were also left disappointed.

4 June
The world’s oceans are dying. Can a UN summit in Nice turn the tide?

23 May
UNEP Cartagena Convention Secretariat at the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference
(UNEP) The third United Nations Ocean Conference will be held in Nice, France, from 9 to 13 June 2025, co-hosted by the Governments of France and Costa Rica. Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, serves as the Conference Secretary-General.
The overarching theme of the Conference is “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean”. The Conference aims to drive urgent action to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, and further identify ways and means to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.
The ocean plays a critical role in regulating the climate, generating oxygen, and absorbing carbon dioxide, yet it faces rising temperatures, acidification and biodiversity collapse, with over 50% of marine species at risk of extinction by 2100. The Conference will address the urgent need to protect and restore the ocean, which is increasingly degraded due to climate change, unsustainable human activities and biodiversity loss.
Taking place within the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), it will also be the first UN Ocean Conference since the adoption of the legal agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity, the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework and the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, as well as discussions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution.

4 January
‘Ironic’: climate-driven sea level rise will overwhelm major oil ports, study shows
Ports including in Saudi Arabia and the US projected to be seriously damaged by a metre of sea level rise
Scientists said the threat was ironic as fossil fuel burning causes global heating. They said reducing emissions by moving to renewable energy would halt global heating and deliver more reliable energy.
Thirteen of the ports with the highest supertanker traffic will be seriously damaged by just 1 metre of sea level rise, the analysis found. The researchers said two low-lying ports in Saudi Arabia – Ras Tanura and Yanbu – were particularly vulnerable. Both are operated by Aramco, the Saudi state oil firm, and 98% of the country’s oil exports leave via these ports.
The oil ports of Houston and Galveston in the US, the world’s biggest oil producer, are also on the list, as are ports in the United Arab Emirates, China, Singapore and the Netherlands.

2024

7 November
How the climate crisis threatens the Panama Canal – and the country’s future
The region has spent over a year in drought, the third worst since the canal opened in 1914, forcing the authorities to restrict the number and size of vessels crossing the continent, creating today’s waterborne traffic jam.
Since 1997, three significant droughts have threatened the canal’s operations, says Steven Paton of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, who monitors tropical climate and oceans. He confirms growing worries about the sustainability of water levels in the Panama Canal given changing climate patterns.

4 June
As seas rise, the relocation of Caribbean islanders has begun
The government-managed movement of 300 families from the island of Gardi Sugdub is a test case for “planned retreat” in Latin America
(The Economist) On June 3rd the Panamanian government began relocating 300 families from Gardi Sugdub, a tiny coral island about a kilometre off the northern coast of Panama to new, government-built housing on the mainland. A changing climate and rising seas are slowly swamping the island, and 37 other inhabited islands nearby, most of which lie less than one metre above sea level. That level is rising by 3.4 millimetres every year. Storms are becoming heavier and more frequent. Steve Paton of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City says the islands will be uninhabitable by the end of the century.

16 April
Seychelles becomes the first African nation to ratify the High Seas Treaty
The High Seas Alliance congratulated Seychelles today for becoming the first African nation to officially ratify the new High Seas Treaty at the United Nations (UN) headquarters1, thereby joining Palau, Chile and Belize as the leading countries in the Race for Ratification2.
“We applaud Seychelles for demonstrating global leadership in protecting biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction by formally ratifying the High Seas Treaty. Although the High Seas sustains the greatest wealth of life on Earth, these vast international waters are the least protected areas of our planet. By picking up the pace in the Race for Ratification, Seychelles has taken the world a step closer to a new era of ocean protections,” said Rebecca Hubbard, Director of the High Seas Alliance.

4 March
Ottawa celebrates signing a watershed ocean treaty
Canada has signed a landmark global ocean agreement on the first anniversary of the historic document’s creation.
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Diane Lebouthillier signed the High Seas Treaty at the United Nations in New York on Monday.
The accord is the result of decades of work and provides a legally binding blueprint to create marine-protected areas (MPAs) in international waters in a bid to conserve marine life and the fair, sustainable use of ocean resources.
The agreement represents one of the first co-ordinated international efforts to preserve the high seas, which make up two-thirds of the ocean but are inadequately governed by a patchwork of agreements and agencies largely focused on resource extraction, like fishing or underwater mining.
Ocean conservation groups celebrated the signing but urged the Canadian government to act quickly and ratify the treaty aimed at protecting marine biodiversity in shared international waters, also known as the BBNJ Agreement.
In his capacity of policy director of Nature Canada, Akaash Maharaj witnessed the signing of the “UN Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty”,[which] protects marine biodiversity in international waters. It is arguably the most important conservation measure of all time. This is a victory for everyone who pressed national governments not to leave the world’s oceans abandoned to lawless exploitation. If state parties keep their commitments, the treaty will halt the oceans’ slide into becoming watery deserts, and will give life on Earth a fighting chance

7 March
The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone
As far as humanity is concerned, the transformation of our seas is “effectively permanent.”
By Marina Koren
(The Atlantic) Even after nearly three months of winter, the oceans of the Northern Hemisphere are disturbingly warm. Last summer’s unprecedented temperatures—remember the “hot tub” waters off the coast of Florida?—have simmered down to a sea-surface average around 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the North Atlantic, but even that is unprecedented for this time of year. The alarming trend stretches around the world: 41 percent of the global ocean experienced heat waves in January. The temperatures are also part of a decades-long hot streak in the oceans.
Research suggests that by the end of the century, much of the ocean could be in a permanent heat wave relative to historical thresholds, depending on the quantity of greenhouse gases that humans emit. Many other changes will unfold alongside those hot ocean temperatures: stronger hurricanes, rising sea levels, unmanageable conditions for marine life. Our seas, in other words, will be altered within decades.

16 January
UNDP welcomes UN-Oceans Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction or the High Seas Treaty
Statement delivered by Marcos Neto on behalf of UNDP at the UN-Oceans Principals’ Meeting, on the Agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) or ‘the High Seas Treaty’.
UNDP’s Ocean Promise is our long-term strategy for advancing a blue ocean economy through a just transition that lifts all boats by working closely with governments and all stakeholders from the public, private, and civil society sector.
It aligns closely with the UNDP Nature Pledge and UNDP Climate Promise.
Through our Ocean Promise, UNDP emphasizes the inclusive ambitions of the BBNJ though fair and equitable benefit-sharing. We will help to ensure that all groups benefit from the sustainable use of marine resources and protection of its biodiversity.