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Speaker says ocean crisis threatens SDG 14, conference to adopt 'East Ocean Action Plan' and a political declaration
Summary
An unnamed commenter told a meeting that achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 requires far more financing than has been provided and that an upcoming conference will adopt a concise political declaration and compile voluntary commitments as an "East Ocean Action Plan."
An unnamed commenter said the ocean faces an "unprecedented crisis due to climate change, plastic pollution, ecosystem loss, and the overuse of the marine resources," and argued that meeting Sustainable Development Goal 14 will require far more funding than has been made available to date.
The commenter said the cost to achieve SDG 14 is "almost like a hundred and 75,000,000,000 US dollars annually" and added that "less than the $10,000,000,000 was allocated between 2015 and 2019," calling SDG 14 the most underfunded Sustainable Development Goal. The speaker did not provide a written source for the funding figures while speaking.
The speaker described a forthcoming conference that "will adopt a brief, concise, but action oriented declaration and compile voluntary commitments from all the sectors as a part of what will be referred to as the East Ocean Action Plan." The speaker said the political declaration mentioned is "still under the negotiation process led by the Australian and the COP Verdict in Europe."
On the substance of the draft declaration, the commenter said it "focuses very much on ocean conservation and sustainable ocean based economies, and includes the concrete measures for accelerating actions." The speaker listed linked challenges the draft addresses, including plastic pollution, overfishing, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification and warming, and said those issues "are very much interlinked, and they're also exacerbating to the climate change."
The speaker said they "hope the conference will inspire the unprecedented ambition, innovative partnerships, and maybe a very healthy competition." No formal action, vote or resolution was recorded in the transcript provided; the remarks were descriptive of the draft declaration and the planned East Ocean Action Plan rather than directives or decisions.
Because the transcript did not identify the speaker by name or organizational affiliation, quotes and attribution in this article are attributed to "Commenter," the generic label used for unidentified speakers in the record. The transcript did not specify a date for the conference, the authors of the draft declaration beyond the parties mentioned in the remarks, nor a definitive, sourced breakdown of the funding figures cited.
