António Guterres, the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, opened the Oceans Conference on Monday, June 5th and emphasised the need to conserve the oceans and to use them in a sustainable way.
"The health of our oceans and seas requires us to put aside short-term national gain, to avoid long-term global catastrophe.”
World leaders joined representatives from civil society, business, academia and science at the Ocean Conference at UN Headquarters in New York in calling for accelerated action to reverse the deterioration of the ocean.
The seas and oceans cover two-thirds of the world, providing food, energy, water, jobs and economic benefits to people in all countries, even those without a coastline, the UN Secretary-General said during his opening speech.
Guterres stressed that oceans are a "crucial buffer against climate change and a massive resource for sustainable development."
In his address, Guterres recalled that many nationalities, including his own, have a special relationship with the sea, "the sea has a special relationship with everyone," but it is more threatened than ever.
The former Prime Minister of Portugal mentioned pollution, overfishing and the effects of climate change that are "severely damaging the health of the oceans."
Guterres cited a recent study pointing out that by 2050 there may be more items of plastic than there are fish in the sea.
Among other issues, Guterres highlighted rising water levels that threaten entire countries and warned that changing currents will have a serious impact on climate patterns, “ it is necessary to prepare for more frequent storms and droughts. "
To the participants of the Oceans Conference, Guterres said, "we are here to turn the tide" and that it was people who created these problems and with decisive and coordinated global action, people can solve them.
The Secretary-General has argued that Sustainable Development Goal 14 is the road map for clean, healthy oceans, “ODS 14 addresses the conservation of seas and oceans and the management of marine resources.”
For Guterres, the "first essential step is to end the artificial dichotomy between economic demands and the health of the seas." According to him, the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources are two sides of the same coin.
He also stressed the need to "promote strong political leadership and new partnerships based on existing legal frameworks."
The Secretary-General also argued that it is necessary to transform the political will of Agenda 2030, the Paris Agreement and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, into financial commitments.
Guterres also spoke about the importance of increasing the knowledge base with better data, information and analysis, as well as sharing good examples and experiences.
He stressed that the United Nations has a key role to play and reaffirmed the organisation's commitment to provide support for the implementation of the "historic agreements" of 2016, including ODS 14.
Guterres said he was determined to break down barriers between UN agencies and programmes to improve performance and accountability and called for "short-term national gains to avoid a long-term global catastrophe."
For António Guterres, conserving the oceans and using them in a sustainable way is preserving one's life but he did not cover the current threat from mining on the ocean floors, a controversial technology that Portugal’s government slowly but surely is progressing with the legal expansion of its sea area and the establishment of specialist marine institutes to support industries and companies involved in deep sea mining.
The opening of the Conference was been marked by a surge in the number of voluntary commitments to take action to improve the health of the ocean - more than 700 commitments have been received.
The President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, said in the opening session, “In most probability this conference represents the best opportunity we will ever have to reverse the cycle of decline that human activity has brought upon the Ocean.”
The conference runs until June 9th: https://oceanconference.un.org/
