WILLAGRI
The United Nations Conference on the Oceans (UNOC3) opened in Nice on 9 June and ended on 13 June. It brings together United Nations Member States, specialized agencies, civil society, the private sector and international donors to address the challenges related to the protection of the oceans. The aim is to achieve concrete results, including the creation of the Nice Ocean Action Plan, which will include voluntary and financial commitments for the sustainable management of marine resources. Several side events are organised on the sidelines of the conference such as the One Ocean Science Congress (3-6 June), the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco (7-8 June) and the Ocean Rise and Coastal Resilience Coalition (7 June). The World Ocean Day was also celebrated in Nice on 8 June.
France, as the host country, has the ambition to make this conference a decisive turning point in the protection of the ocean, hoping that the Nice Agreement will be the equivalent for the ocean of what the Paris Climate Agreement was. The 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference was held in Lisbon, Portugal from June 27 to July 1. The theme of the meeting was “Strengthening science- and innovation-based ocean action for the implementation of Goal 14: stocktaking, partnerships and solutions”. This conference recorded about a hundred commitments for the ocean and highlighted the growing importance of civil society in dialogues for a healthy ocean. However, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) regretted that none of the targets to be achieved by 2020 had been achieved, urging member states to redouble their efforts.