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13 June 2025, Nice France - Sounds from the Pacific during the opening ceremony were replaced by the thundering roar of fog-horns on the Port of Nice on Friday to signal the end of third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3).
The sound of the horns followed a historical moment when Pacific countries joined more than 170 nations to adopt by consensus the outcome of the conference, the Nice Ocean Action Plan, promising urgent action to protect our Ocean.
At the closing, France’s special envoy for UNOC3, Mr Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, recalled that at the beginning of the week, the world called for the Nice Conference to take a chance on transformative change. 
“I believe we have moved forward, but we can no longer go backwards,” he said. 
The meeting attended by more than 15,000 participants, including more than 60 Heads of State and Government, was the latest summit to tackle a deepening crisis in the Ocean driven by overfishing, climate change and pollution.
Communities in the Pacific Islands are amongst the worst hit by the impacts. 
In Nice this week, Pacific leaders and officials were actively engaged in all the spaces to amplify their united and collective voice to promote the protection of our Ocean so that it is healthy and productive for the survival of communities.
The Pacific countries advocated for regional and national priorities during the plenaries, Ocean Action Panels and took centre stage during the majority of 450 side events attended by 100,000 visitors. 
At the end of the week, the hard work culminated in a shared call to expand marine protection, curb pollution, regulate the high seas, and unlock financing for vulnerable coastal and island nations.
During a press conference, Tuvalu Prime Minister, Hon. Feleti Teo, said the Pacific must sustain the pressure in calling for urgent action from the global community to protect our Ocean.
“The Ocean is everything to us,” said Prime Minister Teo. “It sustains our livelihoods, it’s our source of economic development, it’s also the source of our protein in terms of fisheries. I believe that this conference has contributed to the conversations we need to have.
“Obviously I share the frustrations of many small island developing countries in terms of the non-responsiveness of international financial facilities. We need to sustain the pressure and meetings of this sort gives us an excellent opportunity to be able to tell our stories.”
On the margins of UNOC3, Pacific leaders also convened for the 6th France- Pacific Summit hosted by the President of the Republic of France, His Excellency Emmanuel Macron. 
Prime Minister Teo said he left the meeting with President Macron quite confident that France has the Pacific’s needs at heart. 
As the curtains fall on UNOC3, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the Summit, Li Junhua, said the Nice UNOC is a historical week, referring to the outcomes.
The Nice Ocean Action Plan is a two-part framework that comprises a political declaration and over 800 voluntary commitments by governments, scientists, UN agencies, and civil society since the previous conference.
“These range from advocacy by youth to deep-sea ecosystem literacy, capacity building in science and innovation, and pledges to ratify intergovernmental treaties,” Mr. Li said.
The pledges unveiled this week reflected the breadth of the Ocean crisis, he added.
The European Commission announced an investment of €1 billion to support Ocean conservation, science, and sustainable fishing, while French Polynesia pledged to create the world’s largest marine protected area, encompassing its entire exclusive economic zone – about five million square kilometers.
Germany launched a €100-million programme to remove underwater munitions from the Baltic and North Seas. In addition, New Zealand committed $52 million to strengthen ocean governance in the Pacific, and Spain announced five new marine protected areas.
A 37-country coalition led by Panama and Canada launched the High Ambition Coalition for a Quiet Ocean to tackle underwater noise pollution. Meanwhile, Indonesia and the World Bank introduced a ‘Coral Bond’ to help finance reef conservation in the country.
One of the conference’s main objectives was to accelerate progress on the High Seas Treaty – known as the BBNJ agreement – adopted in 2023 to safeguard marine life in international waters. Sixty ratifications are needed for it to enter into force. Over the past week, 19 countries ratified the accord, bringing the total number as for Friday, to 50.
UN’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, Mr Peter Thomson, said the gathering in Nice marked a turning point. 
“It’s not so much what happens at the conference, it is what happens afterwards,” he told UN News, recalling the early days of Ocean advocacy when Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14), on life below water, was first established. 
“From the desert we were in back in 2015… to where we are now, where you see this incredible engagement.”


The third UN Ocean Conference is co-hosted by France and Costa Rica and held in Nice, France, from 9 – 13 June 2025. The overarching theme of the Conference is “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean”.
The Pacific Islands are represented by a strong contingent, which includes leaders from the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, Niue, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa and Tuvalu. Also present and engaged are Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is providing support to Pacific delegations as part of the One CROP support. SPREP will provide more Pacific news from the UNOC2025. For further information on the UN Ocean Conference 2025, please visit: https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/ocean2025   

PHOTO CREDIT: IISD/ENB - Kiara Worth

Tags
UNOC3, oceans, Nice France, Ocean health, Nice Ocean Action Plan