It is a gathering almost on the scale of that which convened in 2015 to hammer out the landmark Paris climate agreement. The 2025 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) is an attempt to secure global agreement to protect our high seas. It could be a rare win for multilateralism at a time of geopolitical tension.
More than 100 world leaders, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, will gather in Nice next week for the third such conference, to be known as UNOC3, with hope of a political breakthrough in the best interests of the world’s largest ecosystem. This could lead to protecting the high seas from all extraction, forever.
International waters make up about two-thirds of Earth’s biosphere by volume. As the publication Nature noted this week, “exploitation of the high seas risks doing irreversible damage to biodiversity, climate stability and ocean equity. A consensus must be built now to save them.”
They have been exploited for centuries. Now climate change is reducing productivity of the high seas through warming and depletion of nutrients and oxygen. They are no longer a giant carbon store.
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Where does “the Attenborough factor” come in?
Thousands of researchers, scientists, economic actors, activists and concerned citizens will be present. For many, the words of naturalist David Attenborough will be ringing in their ears. His film Ocean, which opened last month, features dazzling footage of marine biodiversity – coral reefs, seamounts, whales, sharks, sea lions and fish. But it also shines a light on industrial fishing practices, including bottom trawling, that are wreaking havoc on habitats.
Ocean’s release and core message was timed to force the topic on to the UNOC3 agenda. Cinemagoers were asked to stay in their seats to hear Attenborough reinforce a compelling message of hope if action is prompt and includes an end to bottom trawling in “marine protected areas”.
How significant is “30x30″?
Scientists estimate that we need to protect around 30 per cent of seas by 2030. Nearly all governments agreed to this in Montreal in 2022 but there has been scant progress since. Pursuing 30 by 30 and sustainably managing the other 70 per cent can quickly lead to a reflourishing.
Less than 1 per cent of oceans are protected because there is no globally accepted mechanism to do so beyond Antarctica. The UN High Seas Treaty was agreed in 2023 to fill the governance gap. Sixty countries are required to ratify it. As of June 4th, only 28 countries have done so.
Ireland has signalled it will ratify once enabling EU legislation is clear. There is no indication the US will do so.
Nailing down ratification would send a powerful message, while closing the high seas entirely would benefit many states by boosting catches in national waters – but that may prove to be too big an ask.
