Nice: With the shimmering Mediterranean as a backdrop, the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) launched Monday in the French city of Nice, marked by strong warnings from world leaders and a passionate plea from UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“The ocean is our most vital shared resource — and we are failing it,” Guterres declared, opening the five-day summit by outlining the dire state of the world’s oceans, which are absorbing the vast majority of excess heat from greenhouse gases. He pointed to rising ocean temperatures, collapsing fish stocks, coral bleaching, and sea level rise as signs of an ecosystem on the brink.
More than 50 heads of state and government, including Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, attended the opening — a clear sign of the summit’s elevated status. In total, representatives from over 120 countries are participating, reflecting the growing consensus that healthy oceans are critical to climate balance, global food systems, and equitable development.
French President Emmanuel Macron, co-hosting the summit with Costa Rica, emphasized the need for science and collective global governance in managing ocean resources. “The deep sea is not for sale,” Macron said. “Neither is Greenland, nor Antarctica, nor the high seas. If the Earth is warming, the ocean is boiling.”
He reiterated that ocean preservation cannot be entrusted to markets or shifting public opinion but must be rooted in scientific evidence and multilateral cooperation. Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves echoed these sentiments with an emotional call to action, urging an end to the exploitation of oceans as “a limitless pantry and global waste dump.”
Chaves also made one of the summit’s most significant policy appeals: a moratorium on deep-sea mining in international waters until the full environmental impact can be scientifically understood. He noted that 33 nations already support this position.
A central goal of the summit is to accelerate ratification of the High Seas Treaty, or BBNJ accord, adopted in 2023. Macron announced that the 60-country threshold needed to bring the treaty into force is now within reach, thanks to a surge of new commitments.
“This treaty will be implemented,” Macron affirmed. “Whether the ratification milestone is reached during this week or shortly afterward — this is already a victory.”
Beyond the legal milestones, UNOC3 is expected to produce hundreds of new pledges to address marine degradation, expand ocean finance mechanisms, and finalize a global plastics treaty. The conference will conclude with the adoption of the Nice Ocean Action Plan, a comprehensive roadmap aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s 30x30 goal — protecting 30% of the world’s oceans and lands by 2030.
UN chief Guterres reminded delegates that Sustainable Development Goal 14, focusing on ocean health, remains the most underfunded among the UN’s 17 development goals. He called for urgent financial innovation, including ocean bonds and debt-for-nature swaps, to support coastal nations on the front lines of marine decline.
The opening day also featured a cultural and symbolic program. A traditional Polynesian conch shell, blown by climate activist Ludovic Burns Tuki, set the tone. “This call carries the voice of our ancestors,” said Tuki, reflecting Polynesian traditions that see the ocean not as a border, but as a bridge.
The event included blessings, performances, and reflections by indigenous leaders, scientists, and artists, reinforcing the shared human and ecological heritage of the sea.
“We must act not as individual nations,” Tuki added, “but as one ocean, one people, one future.”
As negotiations get underway in the purpose-built venue overlooking Nice’s historic Port Lympia — now the UN’s temporary “Blue Zone” — the stakes could not be higher. From securing binding ocean protections to regulating the seabed, the conference seeks not only to sound the alarm but to chart a course toward a sustainable and resilient ocean future.
“What we have lost in a generation,” Guterres concluded, “we can reclaim. The ocean that once thrived can be reborn — not as a memory, but as our shared legacy.”
