‘When we look at the Earth from space, we see that we are truly a blue planet - the ocean connects us all,’ said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, at the opening of the UN Ocean Conference.

So here’s how it’s going to work. Over the next four days we’ll have two sessions in parallel: plenary and interactive dialogues. The plenary sessions are for country statements, where countries make voluntary commitments to protect the oceans. The interactive dialogues cover a variety of themes from marine pollution to ocean-based economies, conservation, science and technology, and implementing ocean law.

Let’s be frank: the state of the oceans is not looking good. Over the last century we’ve seen a significant drop in biodiversity, with more than 2.9 million whales killed by the commercial industry, a 35% drop in marine species, with 100 million marine animals dying annually due to pollution, and 320 fish species under threat of extinction.

Marine pollution is one of the biggest problems, both in terms of chemicals and rubbish. Chemical pollution mainly comes from fertilisers in agriculture and other unsustainable waste management (see my #Minamata coverage), leading to algae bloom that is toxic to people and the environment. And rubbish, well, it’s #plastics again: 13 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year, there are about 50-75 trillion pieces of plastic and microplastics in the water, and research shows that by 2050, plastic will outweigh fish.

There are two solutions: prevention and clean up. We have to stop using single-use plastics and we fundamentally need to change our relationship to plastic as a society. We need policy change, product change, and all the support that comes with that. At the same time, we need to start cleaning up. A lot of plastics are already lost in deep waters, but we need to start cleaning our rivers, waterways and beaches, and we certainly need to address the 1.6 million square km of rubbish known as the Pacific Garbage Patch.

It's time to clean up our act in so many ways.

#UNOC2022 #OceanAction #SaveOurOcean #SDG14 #BecauseOceans #livingfiercely