Controversy pervaded the June 2022 UN Ocean Conference, with partisan alliances forming around burgeoning environmental and social issues. Yet, out of the talks, emerged strong aspirations across UN states and other stakeholders to restore and protect the ocean.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources, has elicited broad ambition among many sectors of society. The UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) was established to promote global progress towards achieving SDG 14, providing a forum for stakeholders to address disparate but interlinked concerns including ocean pollution, resource extraction and climate. In June 2022, ocean stakeholders spanning politics, science, industry and civil society met in Lisbon for the second high-level UN Ocean Conference, which was chaired by the presidents of Kenya and Portugal. Eight themes were discussed in general sessions — framed as interactive dialogues — although these mainly comprised prepared statements and lacked spontaneous dialogue. Prominent topics included conservation, deep-seabed mining, and the triple nexus of ocean–climate–biodiversity, distributed justice and ocean finance.
Source: Resources - nature.com
