UNOC3: Green Greed, Stumbling Deeds
The ocean is suffocating, its lifeblood tainted by 5–12 million tonnes of plastic yearly, its waters warmed by climate-driven acidification, and its ecosystems, 60% degraded, plundered by overfishing, as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) starkly reports. From June 9 to 13, 2025, in Nice, France, the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, aimed to breathe life into Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 through the Nice Ocean Action Plan. Yet, as of June 13, 2025, negotiations were ongoing but hindered, mired in corporate greenwashing from giants like TotalEnergies, diplomatic deadlocks over funding and mining bans, and the unheeded cries of fishers from Mozambique to Tawi-Tawi. While the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) herald restoration efforts restoring five million hectares, the ocean’s fate hangs on whether global leaders can overcome profit-driven agendas and deliver for three billion livelihoods. This report unmasks the clash of corporate ambition, governance gaps, and grassroots resolve to make the ocean blue again.
The ocean’s crisis demands urgent action. The UNEP warns that 60% of marine ecosystems are degraded, with over half of species facing extinction risks by 2100. On June 11, the FAO unveiled its most comprehensive assessment yet, the Review of the State of World Marine Fishery Resources – 2025, analysing 2,570 fish stocks with contributions from over 650 experts across 90 countries. It reveals that 64.5% of stocks are fished within biologically sustainable levels, but 35.5% are overfished, increasing by 1% annually, with 77.2% of global landings from sustainable stocks. In Nice, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu emphasised, “Effective management remains the most powerful tool for conserving fisheries resources. This review provides an unprecedentedly comprehensive understanding, enabling more informed decision-making based on data.” Regions with robust governance shine: the Northeast Pacific boasts 92.7% sustainable stocks, the Southwest Pacific 85%, and the Antarctic achieves 100% sustainability through ecosystem-based management. David Agnew, Executive Secretary of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), noted, “Positive outcomes like the Antarctic, Northeast Pacific, and Southwest Pacific reflect the benefit of strong institutions, consistent monitoring, and precautionary approaches.” In contrast, the Southeast Pacific (46% sustainable) and Eastern Central Atlantic (47.4%) struggle, where limited data and weak governance threaten 600 million livelihoods, particularly in small-scale fisheries critical for food security. Tuna stocks excel, with 87% sustainable, but deep-sea species fare poorly at 29%, and migratory sharks suffer from inconsistent global management. The Mediterranean and Black Sea show early recovery, with fishing pressure down 30% and biomass up 15% since 2013, yet QU Dongyu urged, “The evidence shows what works and where we are falling short. Governments must scale up what works and act with urgency to ensure marine fisheries deliver for people and planet.” These findings underscore the need for science-based policies to reverse overfishing trends and protect vulnerable stocks.
Ocean protection remains woefully inadequate: only 8.4% of global oceans are designated as protected areas, with just 2.7% effectively managed, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), far short of the 30% target by 2030 set by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The Nice Ocean Action Plan, building on voluntary commitments from United Nations Ocean Conferences in New York (2017) and Lisbon (2022), aims to advance Sustainable Development Goal 14 through a political declaration and new pledges, but its non-binding nature draws criticism. The Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean coalition, supported by 20 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including The Varda Group and Tara Ocean Foundation, decries the plan’s lack of enforceable targets, pointing to entrenched obstacles. The European Union (EU) and Japan champion green technologies like offshore wind and hydrogen-powered shipping, yet shy away from mandatory commitments that could disrupt economic interests. Small island developing states (SIDS), led by Tonga and the Maldives, demand $500 billion annually in grants to mitigate $7 billion in losses from sea-level rise (3.7 mm yearly) and storms, as per UNEP estimates, rejecting the European Union and United States’s $100 billion loan offer as inadequate. France’s push for a deep-sea mining moratorium, supported by 25 nations and bolstered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s warnings of ecosystem devastation, faces opposition from China and Russia, who hold significant International Seabed Authority (ISA) contracts. The United States, not a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), abstains from key votes, allowing permissive International Seabed Authority regulations to persist. Brazil and Costa Rica advocate for enforceable 30% ocean protection targets, but nations like India and China prioritise economic flexibility, favouring voluntary pledges. Non-governmental organisations, rallying for the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Treaty’s ratification, a global plastics treaty, and a mining ban, find themselves sidelined in closed-door talks, sparking a June 11, 2025, protest of 500 activists chanting “No more empty pledges!” United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres, addressing delegates on June 11, declared the ocean, which absorbs 90% of greenhouse gas heat, faces an “ecological emergency,” urging bold action to reverse the tide of degradation.
Corporate agendas loom large, casting doubt on the UNOC3’s integrity. At the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco on June 7–8, 2025, industry titans like TotalEnergies, A.P. Moller-Maersk, and The Metals Company steered discussions toward profit-friendly solutions. TotalEnergies, while promoting offshore wind, faces Greenpeace’s condemnation for its $16 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline, which threatens biodiversity across Uganda and Tanzania, as documented in a 2024 report. Its side events at the Third United Nations Ocean Conference, touting carbon offsets, were criticised as a veneer for continued fossil fuel expansion. A.P. Moller-Maersk, advocating “green shipping corridors,” emits 40 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually, undermining blue carbon initiatives like mangrove restoration, per its 2024 sustainability report and International Union for Conservation of Nature data. The Metals Company, in partnership with the International Seabed Authority, co-hosted a June 10 panel on seabed mining, minimising risks to 90% of unexplored deep-sea ecosystems while projecting $2 billion in profits. The Ocean Cleanup’s collaboration with The Coca-Cola Company, responsible for 3 million tonnes of plastic production yearly, drew scrutiny at a June 9 circularity event co-organised with the UNEP Finance Initiative, with Greenpeace accusing Coca-Cola of resisting plastic production caps. On June 10, Greenpeace projected “Stop Corporate Plunder” onto Nice’s Palais de la Méditerranée, denouncing corporate greenwashing that dilutes Sustainable Development Goal 14’s ambitions, a message amplified across numerous side events.
Amid the gridlock, restoration efforts offer a beacon of hope. On June 11, 2025, the UNEP and FAO announced three World Restoration Flagships, restoring nearly five million hectares—an area the size of Costa Rica—addressing pollution, unsustainable exploitation, and invasive species across three continents.
The three new flagships comprise restoration initiatives in the coral-rich Mozambique channel, more than sixty of Mexico’s islands and the Mar Menor in Spain, Europe’s first ecosystem with a legal personality. The restoration is expected to increase these countries’ capacity to absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂) and help tackle extreme weather and climate events. Madagascar’s mangroves already store more than 300 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e), comparable to the annual electricity use in over 62 million homes in the United States.
“After decades of taking the ocean for granted, we are witnessing a great shift towards restoration. But the challenge ahead of us is significant and we need everyone to play their part,” said United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen. “These World Restoration Flagships show how biodiversity protection, climate action, and economic development are deeply interconnected. To deliver our restoration goals, our ambition must be as big as the ocean we must protect.” QU Dongyu added, “These flagships show that halting and reversing degradation is not only possible, but also beneficial to the planet and people.”
In the Northern Mozambique Channel, home to 35% of the Indian Ocean’s coral reefs, Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania are restoring 87,200 hectares of coral reefs, mangroves, and fisheries, led by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Facing threats from agricultural runoff, overfishing, and climate change, this region could restore 4.85 million hectares by 2030 with sufficient funding, creating 2,000 jobs, 12 community enterprises, and a 30% income rise for households, while sequestering 300 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e), comparable to the electricity use of 62 million United States homes.
In Mexico, the National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI) have cleared 60 invasive species from over 60 islands, reviving 85% of seabird colonies across 100,000 hectares, protecting 300 endemic species, and bolstering sustainable fisheries and ecotourism.
In Spain, the Mar Menor lagoon, Europe’s first ecosystem granted legal personhood in 2022 through a citizen-led initiative by 500,000 people, targets 8,770 hectares with wetlands, sustainable agriculture, and a green belt, set to absorb 82,256 tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2040, equivalent to emissions from 14,000 Spaniards. This area would support Spain’s climate change objectives, including its overall national target of restoring 870,000 hectares by 2030.
With its famously transparent water, the Mar Menor lagoon is essential to the region’s identity, local tourism, small-scale fishing and unique flora and fauna, including water birds. Surrounded by one of Europe’s key agricultural regions, it is the continent’s largest saltwater lagoon, and its biodiversity has successfully adapted to conditions of extreme temperatures, high salinity and low levels of nutrients. However, nitrate discharges from intensive agricultural activity, as well as other polluting land and marine activities, have led to the lagoon’s rapid degradation, including the emergence of damaging algal blooms. A positive turn came when over half a million citizens mobilized in response to episodes of “green soup” and fish kills and supported a Popular Legislative Initiative to make the Mar Menor a legal entity with rights. Actions were also promoted from the justice system to demand the application of environmental liability regulations and possible criminal liability into the pollution. The Spanish Government launched an ambitious intervention through the Framework of Priority Actions to Recover the Mar Menor (MAPMM), aimed at restoring the natural dynamics and solving the problem from the source, articulated in 10 lines of action and 28 measures, by creating wetlands, supporting sustainable agriculture, constructing a wide green belt around it, cleaning up abandoned and polluted mining sites, improving flood risk management, increasing its biodiversity, and sustaining social participation.
These flagships, part of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, align with global commitments to restore one billion hectares by 2030. Yet, Sustainable Development Goal 14’s funding crisis persists, receiving just 0.01% of global sustainability funds against a $500 billion need, per the World Resources Institute, hampering these ambitious efforts.
Progress on international agreements inches forward. The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty, critical for protecting high seas biodiversity, gained momentum with European Union support on May 28, 2025, though ratification progress remains unclear. The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, aimed at curbing $22 billion in harmful subsidies, awaits further ratifications. Civil society refuses to be silenced: Greenpeace’s June 10 protest and a June 11 petition with 10,000 signatures demanded accountability, while the One Ocean Science Congress (June 3–6, 2025) rallied 2,000 scientists for an International Panel for Ocean Sustainability. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) pledged $125 million for small island developing states’ coral restoration, and the European Union committed €1 billion for marine protected areas, though the International Union for Conservation of Nature flags weak enforcement. The Ocean Rise & Resilience Coalition Summit mobilised 15 small island developing states for a “Resilience Charter” presented to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on June 12, amplifying calls for grants over loans. Emmanuel Macron’s World Oceans Day gala rallied 30 leaders for a deep-sea mining moratorium, yet only 25 nations back bans, revealing persistent divides.
Frontline communities embody the stakes. In Mozambique’s Quirimbas, Amina Juma restores coral reefs amid dwindling catches, her World Wide Fund for Nature-supported efforts underfunded yet vital for local livelihoods. In Spain, Teresa Vicente, backed by 500,000 citizens, fights for Mar Menor’s clarity, warning that legal personhood lacks teeth without enforcement. In Tawi-Tawi, Philippines, seaweed farmers grapple with policy gaps, as FAO data highlights, their resilience tested by climate impacts. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called the ocean a “life support system,” producing half the world’s oxygen, yet the UNOC3 risks echoing Lisbon’s unfulfilled pledges. With three billion livelihoods hanging in the balance, a September 2025 meeting looms as a critical juncture. The ocean’s future hinges on dismantling corporate influence, bridging diplomatic divides, and scaling up restoration and fisheries management to make the ocean blue again.
