The second global Ocean Conference taking place in Portugal in a few months’ time promises to be “a critical moment” for the health of life under water and on land, the President of the UN General Assembly said as preparations got underway.
“Life under water is essential to life on land”, said Tijjani Muhammad-Bande. The ocean produces “half of the oxygen we breathe” and provides food for millions of around the world, playing a “fundamental role in mitigating climate change as a major heat and carbon sink”.
The Ocean Conference, which will run in Lisbon from 2 to 6 June, aims to propel science-based innovative solutions in the form of global ocean action.
The worldwide ocean economy is valued at around $1.5 trillion dollars annually, as aquaculture is the fastest-growing food sector and 350 million jobs worldwide are linked to fisheries.
“A healthy marine environment holds untold potential for achieving the entirety of the Sustainable Development Agenda”, he said. “Yet the unsustainable use – and misuse – of ocean resources, climate change, and pollution all threaten the ability of our ocean to provide for us all”.
In this first year of the Decade of Action and Delivery, acceleration is needed on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) targets that are due to be met this year, two-thirds of which relate to the health of our environment.
Mr. Muhammad-Bande spelled out: “We must reach several targets related to SDG 14: Life Under Water…to reframe our understanding of nature as an accelerator for implementing the 2030 Agenda”.
Life under water and on land have a “symbiotic relationship”, he said, noting that “pollution hampers the ocean’s ability to provide for people”.
He referred to last year’s UN Environment Assembly’s ministerial declaration calling for a reduction of single-use plastic products by 2030 as demonstrating “multilateral commitment to forging a better world” and maintained the importance of emulating this leadership at the Ocean Conference “to ensure that the declaration has a transformative impact on life under water”.
While coral reefs are home to a quarter of all marine life, half have been lost, adversely impacting global food security. And illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing further burdens ecosystems.
Moreover, sea level rise induced by climate-change poses an existential threat, with small island developing States at the frontline.
Transitioning to a green economy is “essential to protect our oceans and our world”, he said, recalling that next year marks the beginning of the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Original source: UN News
Published on 04 February 2020
