As the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) prepares to convene in Nice, France from June 9–13, a flurry of recent reports has painted a bleak picture of the world’s oceans—and the global response to their decline. Despite years of pledges and multilateral agreements, marine ecosystems continue to degrade at a staggering pace due to climate change, plastic pollution, destructive fishing, and the unchecked expansion of fossil fuel operations into coastal and offshore waters.
“The ocean is facing an unprecedented crisis due to climate change, plastic pollution, ecosystem loss, and the overuse of marine resources,” said Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of UNOC3, in a statement to UN News.
The summit, co-chaired by France and Costa Rica, aims to “accelerate action and mobilize all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean.” But new evidence suggests that existing protections are dangerously inadequate—and that the political will to reverse course remains elusive.
According to The Ocean Protection Gap, a new report commissioned by the Bloomberg Ocean Fund and produced with groups including WWF International, just 8.6 percent of the world’s oceans are currently designated as protected. Of that, only 2.7 percent is assessed and deemed effectively protected—far short of the global 30×30 goal to conserve at least 30 percent of marine and terrestrial ecosystems by 2030 under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
“Only $1.2 billion of finance is flowing to ocean protection and conservation—less than 10% of what is needed,” the report states, urging developed countries to fulfill their pledge of providing $20 billion by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030 in biodiversity finance to developing nations.
Calling the findings “a wake-up call,” Pepe Clarke, oceans practice leader at WWF, warned, “We have the science, the tools, and a global agreement, but without bold political leadership and a rapid scaling of ambition, funding, and implementation, the promise of 30×30 will remain unfulfilled. Conserving 30% of our ocean by 2030 is not just a target—it’s a lifeline for communities, food security, biodiversity, and the global economy.”
Meanwhile, a separate report released by Earth Insight in partnership with global environmental groups shows that marine protections are being directly undermined by fossil fuel development. The report maps fossil fuel “blocks”—areas licensed for exploration or extraction—overlapping with coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, and even areas officially designated as protected. The analysis calls for an immediate halt to new oil and gas development offshore, the retirement of unassigned blocks, and an end to financial support for fossil fuel expansion in marine zones. It further urges governments to invest in renewable energy, ensure a just transition for workers, restore degraded ecosystems, and strengthen legal and policy frameworks to protect marine environments.
The threats to marine biodiversity are not limited to fossil fuel expansion. In France, a report from Oceana reveals that industrial fishing practices continue in supposedly protected waters. According to the analysis, more than 100 bottom trawling vessels spent over 17,000 hours in 2024 fishing within France’s six Marine Nature Parks. The practice of bottom trawling—where massive weighted nets are dragged across the seafloor—is among the most ecologically destructive, damaging marine habitats and releasing carbon stored in ocean sediments.
“Bottom trawling is one of the most destructive and wasteful practices taking place in our ocean today,” said Daniel Pauly, Oceana board member and founder of the Sea Around Us Project. “These massive, weighted nets bulldoze the ocean floor, destroying everything in their path and remobilizing carbon stored in the seabed. You cannot destroy areas and call them protected. We don’t need more bulldozed tracks on the seafloor. We need protected areas that benefit people and nature.”
Oceana’s campaign director for marine protection in Europe, Nicolas Fournier, specifically called out the French government for failing to uphold its own commitments. “This is a problem President Macron can no longer ignore,” Fournier said. “France needs to go from words to action—and substantiate its claim of achieving 30×30 by actually protecting its marine treasures from destructive fishing.”
As criticism of France’s marine policy intensified, the government appeared to retaliate. Greenpeace reported that French authorities blocked its ship, Arctic Sunrise, from entering the port of Nice just ahead of UNOC3. The vessel had been invited by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to participate in the One Ocean Science Congress and a parade of ships celebrating ocean wonders.
“Arctic Sunrise had been invited by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to participate in the ‘One Ocean Science Congress’ and in the ocean wonders parade taking place right before the UN Ocean Conference,” Greenpeace said in a statement. “Greenpeace International had intended to deliver the messages of 3 million people calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining to the politicians attending the conference.”
Greenpeace International executive director Mads Christensen denounced the decision as “clearly a political decision” and “utterly unacceptable.” He added, “France wants this to be a moment where they present themselves as saviors of the oceans while they want to silence any criticism of their own failures in national waters. We will not be silenced. Greenpeace and the French government share the same objective to get a moratorium on deep-sea mining, which makes the ban of the Arctic Sunrise from Nice even more absurd.”
The challenges ahead for UNOC3 are vast. In April, sea surface temperatures reached their second-highest levels ever recorded for that month. At the same time, a massive coral bleaching event swept across the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific—threatening ecosystems that support 25% of marine species and billions of dollars in tourism and fishing industries.
Despite oceans absorbing more than 90 percent of excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions, they remain among the least funded components of the global climate response. Sustainable Development Goal 14, “Life Below Water,” receives the least funding of all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“But less than $10 billion was allocated between 2015 and 2019,” Mr. Li noted, signaling the need to move ocean funding from trickle to torrent.
The stakes are high. Over 60 percent of marine ecosystems are degraded or unsustainably used. Global fish stocks within safe biological limits have dropped from 90% in the 1970s to just 62 percent in 2021. More than 3 billion people depend on marine biodiversity for food, income, and cultural identity—particularly in small island developing states, where the ocean is both an economic engine and a lifeline.
The Nice summit will feature the unveiling of the Nice Ocean Action Plan, intended to reinforce the Kunming-Montreal framework and include a formal political declaration drafted by Australia and Cabo Verde. According to Li, the declaration will be “concise” and “action-oriented,” with a focus on sustainable ocean economies and conservation.
In addition to hundreds of expected new pledges, delegates will consider roadmaps for decarbonizing maritime transport, scaling blue economies, ending illegal fishing, and advancing a global treaty to curb plastic pollution at its source.
“The global response is insufficient,” Li Junhua cautioned.
As the summit convenes in the sun-soaked Mediterranean—now warming 20 percent faster than the global average—the world will be watching to see whether this latest gathering of nations delivers more than declarations. For the oceans, and the billions who rely on them, the clock is running out.
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