‘No Ocean Declaration without small islands’: Delegates push for inclusion as UN summit nears end

By Heyi Zou, reporting from Nice for UN News

With the conference, known as UNOC3, set to close Friday, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Li Junhua, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, told UN News on Thursday that the past four days have been marked by a rare sense of solidarity around Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) – protection of life below water.

“This is the true testament to the impact of this Conference on the future of our ocean,” he added.

Draft outcome signals sense of urgency

Under way since Monday on France’s sun-drenched Côte d’Azur, UNOC3 is set to conclude with the adoption of a consensus-backed package aimed at securing the future of the world’s oceans.

Delegates are preparing to endorse a political declaration alongside a sweeping set of voluntary commitments from participating nations – collectively known as the Nice Ocean Action Plan.

The declaration itself, titled ‘Our Ocean, Our Future: United for Urgent Action,’ has undergone four rounds of intense intergovernmental negotiations at UN Headquarters in New York since January, alongside informal consultations with key delegations and civil society groups.

At the heart of the conference’s mission – mobilizing action to safeguard and sustainably manage marine ecosystems – the declaration, in draft form, signals a marked shift in tone, underscoring an unprecedented sense of urgency.

It calls for immediate and transformative measures to protect oceans, reflecting growing concerns over climate change, biodiversity loss, and the depletion of marine resources.

In addition, the draft declaration outlines measures to protect marine ecosystems and foster sustainable ocean-based economies. It also emphasizes accelerating action, highlighting that SDG 14 remains one of the least funded UN goals. 

To drive global ocean initiatives forward, the draft declaration calls for significant, accessible financing and the fulfillment of existing commitments under international agreements.

The draft highlights the ocean’s deep ties to climate and biodiversity, urging nations to fully implement the Convention on Biological Diversity. It also reaffirms commitment to an international, legally binding agreement on plastic pollution, emphasizing a comprehensive approach that addresses plastics across their entire life cycle.

Final negotiations are under way, and tomorrow we’ll report on whether nations have reached a consensus to tackle the global ocean emergency, turning decades of pledges into meaningful marine protection.

Small island voices are vital to ocean policy

Among all the stakeholders, small island nations have a key role in shaping the Declaration. As communities most vulnerable to rising seas and marine degradation, their firsthand experience and leadership are essential to crafting effective, inclusive ocean policy.

Safiya Sawney, Special Envoy and Ambassador for Climate of Grenada, told UN News that she is pleased to see the reference in the draft outcome to the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States, or ABAS, which was adopted during the fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States in May 2024.

Ms. Sawney said that including the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda in the UNOC3 political declaration signals growing unity among island nations. She emphasized that, despite numerous challenges, small islands are committed to implementing every obligation under ABAS, demonstrating their determination to turn commitments into action.

“A big part of our heritage, of our culture, of our economy is derived from the ocean,” she said, “So for us, you cannot have an ocean declaration without SIDS.”

‘No compromise with nature’

As for the negotiation process on the draft declaration, Ms. Sawney said that Grenada and other delegations in the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) affirmed that they were leveraging strength and experience from past climate talks and bringing that to the ocean space.

“Part of healthy multilateralism is knowing that you have to compromise,” she admitted, but also adding that “the one thing that we cannot compromise with, however, is nature”.

To ensure that “we're able to all be successful together in supporting this ocean agenda”, she suggested that “there are some countries that need to do more than others”. She added that small island developing States are asking those countries to show their leadership, not just through offsets or financing, but through “real action”.

Caribbean governments acting together

Calling themselves “large ocean nations” at UNOC3, small island developing States are aggregating their weight to not only participate in but shape the global ocean agenda, said Ms. Sawney. Among these efforts, Caribbean governments have been keen to demonstrate political unity and regional ambition throughout the run of the conference.

On the opening day of UNOC3, the Actioning Blue: Caribbean 30x30 Vision for the Ocean was officially launched. It reflects an urgent call by political leaders of the Caribbean to advance collective regional advocacy aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, as well as SDG14.

“Coming into UNOC3, we endorsed 12 Caribbean governments, including independent states and territories, and we've had one additional signature and expression of interest from three different governments,” explained Ms. Sawney.

Changing the tide of over-reliance

Recalling the 2008 Caribbean Challenge Initiative that advanced the protection of roughly 49,000 km of marine protected areas in the region, Ms. Sawney said part of what the newly launched Vision does is remind the international community that “we will continue to work, we'll continue to show up, and we really like their help”.

Describing the Caribbean as “capacity-constrained”, she however pointed to the region’s over-reliance on external help, experts, and capacity.

“We're trying to change the tide,” she continued, by stressing the importance of letting donors know that the region is very invested in building its own capacity and owning its own implementation.

Seeing UNOC3 as an important opportunity to get across this message, Ms. Sawney stated that Caribbean Islands are not just looking forward to the end of the Conference, but what happens afterwards.

“The real work begins after all of this is over,” she concluded with hope.

....................................................................................

This story was first published by UN News.