GO-BC
The Full Story
GO-BC Attends the Third United Nations Ocean Conference
The United Nations
Ocean Conference
UNOC3, co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, aimed to focus on “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean” and sought to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14), with three main priorities, in order to produce an ambitious Nice Ocean Action Plan. These were: Priority 1 - Work towards the successful completion of ocean-related multilateral processes to raise the level of ambition for ocean protection; Priority 2 - Mobilize funding for SDG14 and support the development of a sustainable blue economy; and Priority 3 - Strengthen and better disseminate marine science knowledge for better policy-making.
What happens at UNOC?
Each day, dialogues involving the member states, UN organizations and representatives of civil society (NGOs, scientists, companies) were held. These dialogues, the “Ocean Action Panels” allowed the engagement of different actors and anchored the conference in action by proposing concrete solutions with input from all its participants.
GO-BC Chair Bill Austin submitted a written intervention to Ocean Action Panel 7 – Leveraging Ocean, Climate and Biodiversity Interlinkages and would like to acknowledge helpful suggestions on a draft of the text from Catherine Lovelock (GO-BC executive committee), Hilary Kennedy (GO-BC science technical working group chair), and Carlos Duarte.
Outputs from UNOC3
Bill’s statement on behalf of GO-BC can be viewed (02:48:05 – 02:50:40) and is posted here.
More specifically, if you would like to read the intervention text, it is posted here.
This was a packed week, with insightful presentations, rigorous discussions and engaging activities, all of which led to the development of the "Nice Commitments for the Ocean". This document highlights the achievements of environmental multilateralism since UNOC2 and illustrates the declarations made by 193 UN Member States and non-State parties to increasingly protect our fragile oceans.