Last week, more than 60 world leaders convened in Nice, France, for the third – and the most-attended – United Nations Ocean Conference.
There was cause for celebration: during the week-long conference, 19 countries ratified the Agreement on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), including Fiji and Vanuatu. Enough countries have now ratified or committed to ratifying the BBNJ Agreement that it is expected to come into force by January 2026. (The United States, which did not attend the conference, has not ratified it.)
The treaty could allow the international community to protect 30 percent of the world’s international waters by 2030.
But there remain many significant challenges to overcome, especially for the Pacific Islands, which are among the countries and territories that are the most vulnerable to climate change in the world. For years, Pacific Island leaders have expressed concern that global action is not matching the urgency of the crisis. They reinforced these messages in France.
“We need to adapt to shield our oceans from further harm,” said Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. “And that means – plain and simple – money. And money that we can use.”
“The gap between what we need and what is available is growing dangerously wide. And this is a security issue for the Pacific,” he said.
Pacific nations receive less than half of 1 percent of global climate finance, said Coral Pasisi, climate director at the Pacific Community, a regional scientific and development organization. Meanwhile, building seawalls is extremely costly – nor can it address all of the adverse impacts of climate change.
The Pacific Islands were well represented at the conference, with the Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu in attendance.
Warming oceans and rising sea levels pose serious threats to Pacific Island countries’ safety, sustainable development and even their statehood.
To protect low-lying islands from potential statelessness, Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo called for “the development of an international treaty on sea level rise, to enshrine the legal rights of affected states and people, including the principles of statehood continuity and the permanency of maritime boundary.”
Teo warned last year that by 2050 more than 50 percent of Tuvalu’s territory will be regularly flooded by tides, and hurricanes and typhoons could accelerate these conditions. What happens to a country when it has no more habitable land?
Pacific Island countries and territories are also looking ahead at dire economic prospects. Many of them rely heavily on tuna for sustenance and revenue, but they are going to see tuna stocks increasingly moving out of their exclusive economic zones due to warming waters.
2024 was the hottest year on record for the Southwest Pacific, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The economic impact could be severe. Kiribati earns 71 percent of its government revenue from access fees from foreign fishing fleets; Tuvalu 54 percent, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia 48 percent, and Nauru 31 percent. The Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, and Palau respectively earn 11, 10, and 9 percent of their government revenue from these fees.
If tuna stocks move away, the islands could lose a massive amount of revenue, and regular people would lose a means of feeding their families.
Pacific Island leaders made some of the biggest commitments at the U.N. Ocean Conference: Vanuatu and Solomon Islands announced plans for the Melanesian Ocean Reserve, covering an area spanning the waters of multiple countries and roughly the size of the Amazon rainforest; French Polynesia announced that it will create the world’s largest marine protected area, comprising its entire exclusive economic zone.
“By doing what we are doing, it will put pressure on other countries, including France, to do more,” said French Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson. “Turning this area into a marine protected area is one thing. Ensuring that laws are not broken is another. The responsibility of big nations is not to come and lecture us, but to help us.”
“In French Polynesia, the ocean is much more than a territory – it’s the source of life, culture, and identity,” he said.
Deep-sea mining is another growing concern for many Pacific Island leaders because of its potential harm to fragile marine ecosystems. In France, the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands joined the calls for a moratorium, which many Pacific Island countries already support.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jermiah Manele identified three crises affecting the planet: biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change. “Despite this, some are pursuing deep sea mining with minimal regard for scientific understanding, environmental risks and global consensus,” he said.
“It’s our job now as the Pacific,” said Whipps, “to stand up and say, this direction could be detrimental to all of us that depend on the Pacific ocean and the ocean and we ask that you act responsibly for humankind and for the Pacific.” This comes in response to recent efforts by the United States to fast-track mining in international waters, against the authority of a U.N. regulatory body.
Protecting the world’s oceans – especially the Pacific, the largest and deepest ocean on earth, which is also home to the largest tuna stocks in the world – must become a greater focus for the international community.
The Pacific Islands see themselves not as small island nations but as large ocean states, and they know that their prosperity is tied to that of the ocean.
“We are not just seeing it at some place that we can fish,” Brotherson said. “We are part of the ocean, and the ocean is part of us.”