Engagements exceeding 9.4 billion euros were made at the ninth Our Ocean conference, held this year in Athens, announced Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Funds for the deep sea. Commitments « exceeding 10 billion dollars have been made » at the ninth Our Ocean conference, held this year in Athens, announced Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday, April 16. « The ocean is sending us distress signals. Long before we understood climate change, the ocean was already under attack from overexploitation and pollution, » he recalled.
The Prime Minister praised the « commitments made at this gathering, with over 400 promises worth more than 10 billion dollars, » which is 9.4 billion euros, emphasized Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the second day of this conference attended by delegations from around 120 countries. According to him, these announcements « show that we have the political will to act, and it is only by working together with governments, businesses, civil society » to « address this global challenge, » « the protection of our ocean. »
Two national parks created in the Ionian and Aegean Seas
As the only conference addressing all ocean-related issues at once, Our Ocean was first organized in 2014. Participating countries then committed to investing around 122.3 billion euros (130 billion dollars) for ocean protection. And at the previous summit held in Panama in March 2023, participants pledged to invest 19 billion dollars (17.8 billion euros) in initiatives including sustainable fishing, pollution, maritime safety, and protected areas. The European Union then announced that it would allocate 816.5 million euros to ocean-related projects.
Hosting this year’s Conference, Greece has decided to focus on four themes: sustainable tourism in coastal areas and islands, green maritime transport, reduction of marine plastics and microplastics, and green transition in the Mediterranean. In Greece, 21 initiatives with a budget of 780 million euros are underway as part of a structured strategy for the protection of Greek marine biodiversity. Last week, the government announced the creation of two new national parks, one in the Ionian Sea for marine mammals and turtles, and another in the Aegean Sea for seabirds.
France pushes for the ratification of the international treaty for the protection of the high seas
On the French side, Secretary of State for the Sea and Biodiversity, Hervé Berville, indicated that the priority is the ratification of the international treaty for the protection of the high seas and marine biodiversity (BBNJ), adopted in 2023 at the United Nations in New York. « France has committed to ratifying this treaty in Parliament this year because by protecting the high seas, we give ourselves the means to fight for biodiversity and regulate climate change and pollution, » he said. He recalled that France allocated 80 million euros last year for the protection of the high seas. « The objective now is for ocean protection to be effective and monitored, » emphasized Hervé Berville.
France, which will host the United Nations Ocean Summit in Nice in June 2025, participates in a coalition of 27 countries advocating for an end to deep-sea mining and is working to « expand this coalition » to better protect threatened marine biodiversity, he added.
