3rd Ocean Conference: UN calls for global action to protect oceans and marine biodiversity in high seas

New Delhi: Calling for an end to ocean plunder, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday said the ocean is the ultimate shared resource, but the world is failing it."The deep sea cannot become the wild west. We live in an age of turmoil, but the resolve I see here gives me hope... we can move from plunder to protection," said Guterres, as he opened the third

UN Ocean Conference

in Nice, France, where over 150 countries, including India, are participating to find ways to protect the oceans from over-exploitation, pollution, and biodiversity loss.India is represented there by a team of scientists led by Union minister of earth sciences Jitendra Singh. One of the summit’s core objectives is to help bring into force the landmark

High Seas Treaty

adopted in 2023 to safeguard life in international waters through long-term protection of

marine biodiversity

in the high seas.Sixty ratifications are required for the treaty to become a legally binding international law. The conference is expected to bring enough countries on board as 50 countries have, so far, already submitted their ratifications and 15 more have formally committed to joining them.

“This means that the political agreement has been reached, which allows us to say that this [Treaty] will be properly implemented,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is co-hosting the summit alongside Costa Rica.Macron, while addressing the opening session of the conference, made an urgent call for multilateral mobilisation to save the oceans. Insisting that the fate of the seas cannot be left to markets or opinion, he said, "The first response is therefore multilateralism... If the earth is warming, the ocean is boiling. The climate, like biodiversity, is not a matter of opinion; it is a matter of scientifically established facts.”Singh, while speaking on the sidelines, said that the challenges of the ocean concerns need to be addressed collectively because nearly 70% of the earth's surface is occupied by oceans and the oceans know no political or geographical boundaries. The good and bad effects emanating from the oceans affect humanity, regardless of nationality or the country, he added.