UN Oceans Conference: Australia commits to 30% highly protected marine areas by 2030, signs on to High Seas Biodiversity Treaty, Blue NDC Challenge

Photo: Murray Watt at UNOC3

The third UN Oceans Conference (website) took place in Nice, France from 9 to 13 June 2025. Australia's new Environment Minister attended as head of mission for Australia.

• Australia Commits to 30% high protected marine areas
• Australia Joins Blue NDC Challenge
• Australia Joins Nice Call for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty
• Transcript of Australia National Statement
• UN Secretary General: Fossil Fuel Age is coming to an end

The final Plenary adopted the outcome document of UNOC3, the declaration “Our Ocean, Our Future: United for Urgent Action,” reports the UN. During the closing plenary, Elinor Hammarskjöld, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel, noted that the declaration, also known as the “Nice Ocean Action Plan,” offers a solid roadmap for future action, stressing the need to translate commitments into action to carry the momentum forward, reported the Earth Negotiations bulletin team.

AMOC collapse: Scientists issue open letter warning on catastrophic risk of Atlantic ocean circulation collapse

Risk of Collapse of Ocean Circulation (AMOC) underestimated: Continued greenhouse gas emissions could trigger a regional cooling around the North Atlantic warned the Icelandic Met Office

An Open Letter by Climate Scientists, including 3 Australian climate scientists, was presented to the Nordic Council of Ministers warning of AMOC collapse "risk has so far been greatly underestimated. Such an ocean circulation change would have devastating and irreversible impacts especially for Nordic countries, but also for other parts of the world."

Global impacts may include "a shift in tropical rainfall belts, reduced oceanic carbon dioxide uptake (and thus faster atmospheric increase) as well as major additional sea-level rise particularly along the American Atlantic coast, and an upheaval of marine ecosystems and fisheries"

New IPCC report on Oceans and Cryosphere

The IPCC has released a new scientific report reviewing scientific research on global warming and how it impacts oceans and cryosphere, and knock on effects on marine ecosystems, fisheries, coastal systems and sea level rise, and water systems.

Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists, said:
“Our oceans have absorbed the vast majority of extra heat added to the planet by heat-trapping gases emitted by humans. As the latest IPCC report shows, the consequences for the health of our oceans and the safety of coastal communities are already grave and will worsen as the planet continues to heat up.

“The report details how glaciers and ice sheets around the world are rapidly shrinking in response to human-caused warming. This loss of land-based ice will further accelerate rising seas levels, which will have stark implications for communities whose cultures, livelihoods or water supplies are glacier-dependent, as well for coastal communities across the globe more broadly.

100 climate impacts on oceans and marine ecosystems

Over my last decade of reading on climate change, I have picked up a fact or two on oceans and the marine environment, and written the odd article.

Oceans and the marine biodiversity they encompass are important. Just take a deep breathe and reflect upon the fact that the oxygen we rely upon, every second breathe we take, comes from ocean marine algae. And that's just the start.

Most of us just dabble at the edge of the marine environment with perhaps a visit to the beach. But the oceans are deeply important for providing much of our food, and as a carbon sink and regulator of weather and climate on our planet. From the mangroves and reef ecosystems that border coasts providing many social benefits to us, to the open ocean, and deep seabed with incredible life forms we are still just discovering.

Who could resist an opportunity to detail the many climate change impacts on the oceans and marine ecosystems from marine ecologist, Dr John Bruno, a Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His list, tweeted out using the #100impacts hashtag, comes at a time of the inauguration of the new administration of President Trump. One of the first acts of this new administration was to eliminate all mention of climate change from the Whitehouse website.

The list will build over coming days. Revisit to see the latest posts.

Julie Bishop signs Second Because the Ocean Declaration

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop sure has the gift of the gab with fine rhetorical statements on Australia’s strong targets (ahem), that presently commits the world to 4 degrees C or more of warming.

I caught up with her on Monday night of the second week of COP22 in a high level event at the French Pavillion. She was there with several other ministers to sign the second ‘Because the Ocean declaration’ to improve ocean and reef conservation efforts as part of the UNFCCC climate change process. (See details on signing the First Declaration in Paris at COP21 here)

She highlighted the Australian Government’s 2015 Reef 2050 plan, and $2 billion over 10 years to reduce water pollution affecting the Great Barrier Reef at both this event and later in her ministerial statement to COP.

Record sea surface temperatures in October says UK MetOffice data

Oceans continue to warm with the latest data from the UK Metoffice HADSST3 showing October 2014 had record warm sea surface temperatures. Over 90 per cent of the heat of global warming is being absorbed by the oceans.

This tweet by climate scientist Michael Mann shows the global SST trend:

How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age

New research on the Great Ocean conveyor belt and climatology show How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age (Thom Hartmann). A report in The Independent claims new research also suggests Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by global warming. (See also Bill Maguire in The Guardian reproduced below: Will global warming trigger a new ice age?

Some reports claim Climate Collapse is The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare (Fortune).

Current models of climate change assume a gradual process, but some geoscientists say Sudden Climate Change is the historical norm (See Alley et al 2003 in Science: Abrupt Climate Change).

While there is a vigorous debate in scientific circles over whether global warming matters, Tony Blair's chief scientist David A King has launched a withering attack on President George Bush for failing to tackle climate change, which he says is more serious than terrorism. (Read his letter published in Science, January 2004: Climate Change Science: Adapt, Mitigate, or Ignore?)

While Bush dithers on climate change for the benefit of corporations, New England states confront Bush with climate change plans.

The World Health Organisation recently said 150,000 people died due to global warming (The Guardian) in 2000, and the death toll could double again in the next 30 years if current trends are not reversed.

Another scientific paper predicted Global Warming to Kill Off more than 10 per cent of Species by 2050 (Thomas et al 2014 in Nature: Extinction risk from climate change)

Global Warming is likely to trigger a potential water crisis globally, and Hotter summers, fewer frosts for Australia according to the CSIRO.

Debates and Actions around and outside the Climate Conference in Milan in December 2003 highlighted the root cause of climate change, the fossil fuel economy. According to a recent report to US Dept. of Energy on Peak Oil, "Peaking will be catastrophic".

The lack of action by the United Nations, should make people around the world aware not to depend on states and corporations, but instead to create social-ecological alternatives in our daily lives. Or maybe its time to start preparing for Life after the Oil Crash.

Links: Rising Tide climate Justice Network | Vital Climate Graphics | The discovering of Global Warming