Although they cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and have been responsible for absorbing 91% of the planet’s warming, the oceans do not usually play a leading role in high-level environmental debates. Held in Lisbon from the 27th of June to the 1st of July, the 2nd UN Ocean Conference tries to bring the issues to the center of the discussions.
“Unfortunately, we take the oceans for granted and today we face what I would call an ‘ocean emergency,'” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the opening of the meeting. “We must turn the tide. Healthy and productive oceans are vital to our common future.”
The mission of the more than 140 countries with confirmed presence at the conference, however, is complex. The oceans today suffer from a number of problems, such as the intensive dumping of untreated waste, the accumulation of plastics and overfishing.
There are still other serious issues. According to the latest climate report from the World Meteorological Organization, in 2021 ocean acidification, sea level rise and the concentration of greenhouse gases reached record levels.
“The oceans have not been on the negotiating table, they have not been in the political or economic priorities”, says Tiago Pitta e Cunha, president of the Oceano Azul Foundation, Portugal’s largest non-governmental organization in the area of marine protection.
According to him, after a period of very intensive discussions on the seas between 1982 and 1994, mainly due to the economic and political interests of the great powers, the topic was practically left out of the last major negotiations.
“These last 20 years were truly lost to the cause of the world’s oceans”, says the president of the Oceano Azul Foundation.
“In the most important treaty of the first 20 years of this century, which is the Paris Climate Agreement, the word ‘oceans’ appears only once in the preamble. that the topic received during the Rio+20 conference, held in 2012.
Director of conservation and policies at Associação Natureza Portugal/WWF, Catarina Grilo considers that, since the last UN Climate Conference, in 2021, the theme of the oceans has gained more prominence.
“In fact, the oceans have been underprivileged in the climate agenda, but an important step was taken at the COP in Glasgow, when there was recognition of the role of the oceans in climate regulation and that we need healthy oceans to also have a stable climate. “, evaluates.
While expectations are high, the outcome document produced by the conference should not be a binding treaty between nations. “This is not a conference to generate agreements”, said the minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, José Gomes Cravinho, in an official presentation of the meeting.
Still, the final declaration of the conference, which has been negotiated by diplomats within the scope of the United Nations for more than a year, should present proposals for a future plan of action.
UN delegates, as well as representatives of civil society, work to ensure that nations present concrete voluntary commitments for action on the oceans.
“Our expectation is that countries will not only announce new commitments for the oceans, but also concrete actions to implement those commitments that have remained unfulfilled since the last Ocean Conference in 2017”, says Catarina Grilo, from ANP/WWF.
According to her, there are high expectations for announcements about negotiation processes that are already underway, such as an international treaty on plastics and the protection of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
“There is also some expectation in relation to countries declaring a moratorium on deep sea mining in their waters”, he adds.
In addition to the plenary sessions, the conference has more than 250 side events. At least 25 heads of state and government and 113 ministers confirmed their presence at the event, which has more than a thousand non-governmental organizations accredited to participate.
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
