Vanuatu at UNOC3
Biodiversity Conservation
Environmental Monitoring and Governance
Waste Management and Pollution Control

11 June 2025, Nice France - Actions, not just words.  That’s the message from Vanuatu, on behalf of Pacific Island countries to world leaders and the international community gathering in Nice France this week for the ongoing third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3).
“We call for international solidarity, not only in words but in action – anchored in equity, historical responsibility, and the right to a clean and healthy ocean for future generations.”
The call came from Vanuatu’s Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Hon. Jack Kalmet Norris, when he addressed the plenary at Ocean Action Panel 4 on Preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution from all sources, particularly land-based activities, on Tuesday.
Vanuatu firmly believes that partnerships are critical to support ongoing efforts to address marine pollution, Minister Norris said.
“These partnerships must cover training in monitoring, compliance and surveillance operations and in the use of technologies to mitigate marine pollution is very important to our region,” he said.
“We require resources to ensure compliance and enforcement for government agencies and training and public awareness of government officials and civil society. 
“We also urgently need accessible and sustained climate finance, tailored to the needs and capacities of SIDS; and funding for cleaning up legacy waste such as the giant gyres in the Pacific, and the Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands, which will require sustained resourcing and innovation from the international community and the private sector.”  
In Nice this week, Pacific leaders and officials have travelled far and wide to amplify their united and collective voice to promote the protection of the Ocean so that it is healthy and productive for the survival of communities. 
The plastic pollution crisis is a major threat to a healthy Ocean, and Pacific communities are at the forefront of the impacts caused by a crisis they did not create.
To end plastic pollution at its source, Pacific countries are calling on the international community to invest in Pacific-led solutions that protect our Ocean, our people and our planet. Pacific countries are also pushing for polluters to pay, for global action and financing that empowers communities to restore and defend the Blue Pacific.
“Science and observation tell us that the overwhelming sources of marine pollution in the Pacific Ocean come from river systems of countries that rim the Pacific Islands: lost and abandoned fishing gear, marine pollution from ships as well as legacy waste,” said Hon. Norris. “Marine pollution is overwhelmingly not a problem of our own making, and it is one we cannot solve alone.”
UNOC3 precedes the next round of negotiations where Pacific countries and all parties will look to try and conclude a Global Plastics Treaty. 
Vanuatu lamented that certain negotiating groups are trying to limit the scope of a global instrument to regulating plastic only when it becomes waste, and to place the cost and burden of taking action primarily on national actors. 
“For us, this approach translates to a business-as-usual scenario and is the reason we insist on looking at the full life cycle of plastics to address issues such as overproduction as well as poor and unnecessary design,” said Minister Norris. 
“To supplement the anticipated adoption of a global instrument to end plastic pollution, Parties to the Noumea Convention are considering how this UNEP Regional Seas instrument may incorporate complementary measures to support the global instrument. Additionally, Pacific Islands countries have continued to implement national activities outlined in the Pacific Regional Action Plan: Marine Litter.
“As custodians of the Blue Pacific Ocean, our traditional knowledge of nature-based solutions in the marine environment (e.g. Tapus, Rahui, Tabu) have long allowed for regeneration of damaged ecosystems and marine life. 
“At the national level, states have continued to enhance their regulatory frameworks to address single use plastic waste through improving data,  development of national action plans, and regulations targeting certain single use plastics.. 
“As Parties to numerous MEAS, PIF Members are promoting synergies across MEAs to ease the burden on their limited absorptive capacity to report and delivery multiple activities. Coordinated reporting, shared indicators, and integrated financing approaches should be supported.”


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   

 

 

Tags
UNOC3, oceans, Nice France, marine pollution, Vanuatu