This week, delegates from 130 countries are gathering in Nice for the third UN Ocean Conference to advance the implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 – the protection and sustainable use of the oceans, seas, and marine resources. However, compromises between competing interests – offshore wind energy, marine ecology, deep-sea mining, and the fishing industry – threaten to significantly undermine the effectiveness of potential solutions.
At the EU level, the prevailing climate crisis ideology ensures generous funding for projects such as offshore wind farms – often an unreliable source of fluctuating electricity – while sensible initiatives like ballast water management systems to combat invasive species are financially neglected. Furthermore, the voluntary nature of many commitments leads in practice to weak enforcement and political arbitrariness.
Siegbert Droese, ESN coordinator in the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee (PECH), commented on UNOC3:
“This week’s UN Ocean Conference in Nice is expected to produce the so-called Nice Action Plan for the Oceans. Once again, we anticipate the usual announcements of ‘sustainability initiatives’ by governments and corporations – measures that are often little more than PR stunts, neither effectively monitored nor enforced.
Rather than superficially addressing all of the world’s marine problems while solving none, the conference should focus on the greatest threat to both marine ecology and the livelihood of small-scale fisheries: illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.
Yet greenwashing schemes such as so-called Blue Carbon Markets and taxpayer-funded offshore wind farms appear to be more profitable. This imbalance fails to reflect the true value and importance of the oceans as our planet’s most vital resource.”
