UN Talks Urge Faster Steps to Secure Critical Ocean Health | Science News

LISBON, Portugal (AP) A United Nations conference warned Friday that measures needed to protect the worlds oceans are running late and urged countries to accelerate their implementation.

More than 6,000 senior officials, scientists and activists from more than 120 countries attended a five-day UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

A declaration published on the final day said delegates were deeply alarmed by the global emergency facing the ocean, whose sustainability is critical for the planet.

The declaration said that action is not advancing at the speed or scale required to meet our goals.

Greater ambition is required at all levels to address the dire state of the ocean, it concluded.

The oceans face threats including global warming, pollution and acidification.

A key step is a new international agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, also known as the Treaty of the High Seas.

That treaty aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework for the high seas, which cover some 70% of the earths surface and provide food and livelihoods for billions of people.

After 10 years of talks, however, negotiating countries still havent clinched a deal, frustrating activists. A fifth round of talks is scheduled for August in New York.

Greenpeace said words were not enough.

Laura Meller from the environmental groups Protect the Oceans campaign, said that if declarations could save the oceans they wouldnt be on the brink of collapse.

The crunch will come at next months talks, when governments aim to finalize the global ocean treaty that, at a minimum, seeks to ensure the protection of 30% of the worlds oceans by 2030.

Anything less than that is just not enough, Meller said.

French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attended part of the conference.

Guterres blamed the egoism of some countries for the failure to strike a global oceans agreement so far.

Remi Parmentier, director of the Varda Group ocean think tank, told the Associated Press that the Lisbon conference would be remembered as the moment the tide turned against deep sea mining.

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