Representatives of governments, the private sector, civil society, and academic institutions last month gathered in Norway at the Our Ocean 2019 conference to address actions designed to support a clean, healthy, and productive ocean.
The conference generated 370 commitments valued at more than $63 billion to address climate change (~$51.1 billion and 76 commitments), a sustainable blue economy (~$10.2 billion and 81 commitments), marine protected areas (~$1.3 billion and 53 commitments), marine pollution ($652 million and 76 commitments), sustainable fisheries ($298 million and 60 commitments), marine security ($111 million and 20 commitments), and future Our Ocean conferences (~$900,000 and 4 commitments). The private sector committed ~80% of the funding, with intergovernmental organizations and governmental organizations committing the bulk of the remainder.
During the conference, Our Daily Planet conducted an interview with former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who launched the inaugural conference in 2014. During the interview, among other things Kerry said that “you can’t protect the oceans without solving climate change and you can’t solve climate change without protecting the oceans, and you can’t do either if you can’t prove it’s economically workable for average people,” endorsed setting aside areas of the high seas as “a kind of protected area for the whole world,” and voiced support for US accession to the Law of the Sea Treaty.
