While we can map the surface of Mars, 70% of our own planet remains a mystery — and it is in peril. The ocean that feeds 1 in 3 people worldwide is choking on plastic, its fish stocks decimated, its very chemistry altered by climate change.
This month's United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, offers a last-chance opportunity to forge binding international agreements that could save our seas. But only if world leaders move beyond talk to tackle three critical gaps: governance of the lawless high seas, financing for ocean protection, and the shocking reality that we know less about our ocean depths than distant planets.
France and Costa Rica are co-hosting the Third United Nations Ocean Conference, or UNOC3, from June 9-13. Some 100 heads of state and government are expected to attend, as well as tens of thousands of researchers, scientists, economic players, activists, and citizens from around the world.
About the author
Jérôme Bonnafont
Jérôme Bonnafont is the ambassador and permanent representative of France to the United Nations in New York. A graduate from the French École Nationale d’Administration, he has served as ambassador and permanent representative of France to the United Nations Office in Geneva, ambassador in Madrid, ambassador in New Delhi, and at the presidency.
