EU Statement – UN General Assembly: Presentation of the zero draft of the declaration on the 2025 Ocean Conference

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia^*, Montenegro^*, Serbia^*, Albania^*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina^* and Georgia, as well as Monaco align themselves with this statement.

The European Union and its Member States congratulate the co-facilitators on their appointment and we express our gratitude to them for providing a draft declaration, thus kicking off the negotiations for the political outcome.

We are gravely concerned by the state of our ocean. Since the previous UN Ocean Conference in 2022, the ocean has experienced a series of record-breaking extreme events. These include: unprecedented marine heatwaves; previously unseen anomalies in average sea surface temperatures; record losses in sea ice coverage; rising ocean acidity and an accelerating rate of sea level rise. Meanwhile, the individual and cumulative pressures arising from human activities show little or no sign of abating, and every increment of global warming intensifies multiple and concurrent hazards. The science is clear: our ocean is in a state of emergency, and urgent action is essential to reverse this crisis.

Building on the two previous conferences, the 2025 UN Ocean Conference provides us with a crucial platform to emphasise the urgency about the increasing scale of the global crisis we face and to reaffirm our collective resolve to address it through bold joint action. We will seek to reflect this through an ambitious political declaration that is grounded in the latest scientific evidence and that is focused on action-oriented solutions.

We believe that the zero draft provides a good basis to work with. We welcome the proposed length of the draft. A focused document should help us have a targeted discussion that focusses less on the diagnosis and more on the actions to be taken.

In this regard, we are also happy to see an action-oriented title, on which however we believe further elaboration would be needed.

We also welcome the general sense of urgency that prevails throughout the draft and would like it to be also reflected in the title of the Declaration.

We further welcome the list of main issues to be tackled, as well as the ambition to deliver actions that could support and accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 by 2030.

It will be crucial that the Declaration and the actions it proposes are tightly linked to the implementation or conclusions of all multilateral processes directly or indirectly related to the ocean. There are many and they include: the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework and the relevant CBD CoP decisions, the BBNJ Agreement, the relevant decisions related to the Paris Agreement and the UN Climate Change Conferences, including the setting-up of the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue, the ongoing UN Decades on Ocean Science and Ecosystem Restoration, but also the negotiations on a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, and a comprehensive subsidies agreement under the WTO. We should also not lose sight in the declaration of the need to enhance cooperation between these and other ocean governance frameworks, which include the work done by regional fisheries management organisations, the UN Environment Programme, the Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans, the International Maritime Organisation, the International Seabed Authority and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. In this same vein, we would welcome a stronger recognition in the Declaration of the need to act collectively.

We are preparing a set of proposals for new language with the objective to increase the level of ambition of the declaration and add concrete actions. We will present and elaborate these in the next two informal meetings. We believe that the Declaration would benefit from language on the following aspects for example:

• First, a recognition of the fact that accelerated and urgent implementation of SDG 14 requires the leveraging of the interlinkages between Goal 14 and other Goals of the 2030 Agenda, especially Goal 13 on climate action, given the multi-faceted and cross-sectoral nature of ocean-related issues.
• Second, given the dynamic interface between land and the ocean, the source-to-sea approach should be highlighted.
• Third, an emphasis on inclusivity, skills and ocean literacy. Inclusivity already features well in the zero draft and we believe that the Declaration should inspire individual and collective responsibility. It should therefore act as a call to action to a broad range of actors, including the private sector, civil society, the scientific community, philanthropy, and other investment partners.
• Fourth, building on the outcomes of the 2nd UN Ocean Conference, the Declaration should scale up action not only based on research/science, but also on innovation. Innovation, in line with the precautionary principle and ecosystem-based approaches, can contribute to the solutions necessary to overcome challenges in achieving Goal 14.
• Fifth and final, stronger references to sustainable fisheries management and the need to promote sustainable food production from the ocean would be welcomed.

We will constructively engage throughout the negotiations to adopt a Declaration that is brief, concise and action-oriented and we will seek to raise the declaration’s level of ambition.

I thank you for your attention.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.