Nice, France
Your Excellency Mr. President of the French Republic,
Your Excellency Mr. President of the Republic of Costa Rica,
Mr. Secretary General of the 51Ó°Ôº,
Distinguished Heads of State and Government,
Honorable Ministers,
Distinguished delegates, guests and all stakeholders,
In my capacity as the Secretary-General of this Conference, I extend our deep appreciation to the Governments of France and Costa Rica for their leadership as co-hosts.
I also wish to sincerely thank the Permanent Representatives of Australia and Cabo Verde for their exceptional stewardship in leading the intergovernmental negotiations on the Political Declaration.
Excellencies,
The ocean is the blue heart of our planet.
We gather today with a shared sense of urgency and responsibility for the health of our ocean. The UN Ocean Conferences in 2017 and 2022 charted the course for transformative change to scale up action.
Yet, unfortunately, the ocean Goal remains among the least funded of all Sustainable Development Goals. Progress on SDG14 has been unacceptably slow.
This Conference, however, is not about lamenting the gaps. We convene at a moment when multilateralism is re-energizing action for the ocean ¨C from green shipping and marine biodiversity, to tackling plastic pollution and reforming fisheries. Our clear mandate here is to bridge the gap between ambition and reality.
Science has charted our course¡ªfrom restoring ecosystems and rebuilding fish stocks to cultivating sustainable ocean-based economies.
Finance is another critical propeller. Oceans receive less than 1% of all climate finance. This must change radically. We need innovative, blended financing models that galvanize both public and private capital and resources to protect and restore our ocean.
Over the next few days, ten plenary sessions and ten Ocean Action Panels will target key priorities for global ocean action.
One of the most powerful outcomes of this Conference, will be the Voluntary Commitments.
To date, more than 2,000 commitments registered with my department and the number continues to grow. Let us make sure the 2000 commitments will be 2000 real-world solutions.
Before I conclude, allow me to extend my deepest gratitude to France and especially the people of Nice for their warm hospitality, and to my UN colleagues and the host country team for their tireless dedication.
Let us make the 2025 UN Ocean Conference a resounding success.
Thank you.