The announcements of strong investments, the main advance in the international convention
the II UN Oceans Conference concluded this Friday in Lisbon with a handful of announcements in areas such as underwater mining, the protection of international waters or the safeguarding of corals, but which do not appear in the political declaration of the meeting, which, moreover, is not binding for the states.
Promises of strong investmentsespecially to save coral reefs, are the main achievements of the convention, which has avoided banning mining industries in the oceans, as is insistently requested to achieve the goal of saving the seas.
These are the main agreements reached in Lisbon, according to Efe:
Underwater mining is not prohibited
Deep sea mining does not have a single mention in the Conference declaration, but the subject has planned on the appointment, where several countries have demanded a moratorium on these exploitations until there is sufficient scientific knowledge about their impacts.
Palau, a small island country in Oceania, had promoted an alliance of countries to request this moratorium, in collaboration with the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and immediately joined by Fiji and Samoa. They hope that other states will join this moratorium proposal, for which they will continue to fight.
France also positioned itself against advancing against underwater mining: “We must create a legal framework that stops mining on the high seas and not allow new activities that endanger these ecosystems,” defended the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Chile, for its part, endorsed in plenary its request for a moratorium on seabed mining.
Protect international waters
Protect the biodiversity of international waters when the negotiations within the UN scheduled for August are approaching to try to achieve a binding treaty, it has also been one of the keys to the Lisbon meeting.
The High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People that aims to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030, launched in 2021 by Costa Rica, France and the United Kingdom, reached 100 member countries, as announced in Lisbon.
Several countries announced successes or commitments in this regard: Costa Rica, Colombia and Panama have already reached the goal, and the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Portugal promised to do so by 2030.
Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Moore Foundation, the International Conservation Fund of Canada, and six other partners pledged a collective donation of $1 billion (960 million euros) for initiatives that contribute to the 30% goal.
save the corals
25% of marine life depends on coral reefs, and investments to protect them were announced in Lisbon.
Australia will dedicate 1,200 million dollars (1,152 million euros) in the next ten years to preserve the Great Barrier Reef.
And the president of the Global Funds for Coral Reefs (GFCR, for its acronym in English), Chuck Cooper, announced a joint contribution from Bloomberg Philantrophy and Builders Vision for 18 million dollars (17.3 million euros).
against acidification
The International Ocean Acidification Alliance, a voluntary coalition of governments and non-governmental organizations representing almost 300 million people and more than 360,000 kilometers of coastline, gained a new member of weight: the United States.
Sustainable and regulated fishing
Support for sustainable and regulated fishing, as well as for small fishermen, has been another recurring theme.
After reaching an agreement in June at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to prohibit subsidies to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishingits director general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, appealed to the countries in Lisbon to formalize their accession to the agreement.
Spain guaranteed that it will continue exercising “leadership at the international level” in the fight against illegal fishing.
And there were also some fishing announcements: Thailand will put a moratorium on new commercial trawling licenses and prepares a budget of 40 million dollars (about 38 million euros) for a dismantling program.
Other investments
The summit also served to announce other blue investments, such as the Development Bank of Latin America-CAF, which will allocate 1,250 million dollars (1,200 million euros) to finance projects to preserve and promote marine and coastal ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean in the next five years.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will launch “Ocean Promise”, to promote lines of action that compensate for the losses caused by the incorrect management of the oceans, which are equivalent to 1 billion dollars per year.
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