Can the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference Do What the Last Two Couldn’t?

When declarations fail and the ocean continues to struggle, we must believe and support the people who know what to do

I have a good friend who’s a lifelong Manchester City fan (bear with me if you're not into football/soccer/sports, this will eventually make sense). Let’s call him Steve (because his name is Steve). In his youth, he was all in, passionate, loyal, hopeful. Even when they were in the lower leagues, he believed.

Steve wore his heart on his sleeve. Despite his team being perennial underachievers, he backed them every week, but, as he reached his mid-20s, something changed. Cynicism crept in. He started expecting them to lose. It hurt less that way. He adjusted his expectations and, weirdly, took comfort in the disappointment. It became the norm. The predictable rhythm of failure.

I see the same thing happening in ocean conservation and after 20 years working in this field, I’ve felt it myself.

We’ve spent years hoping things will change. Convening at conferences. Talking. Declaring.

Nothing fundamentally shifts, yet still, we gather again. Not because we believe this time will be different, but because it hurts more to give up. We expect to lose, but that’s just the mindset we’re in now.

UNOC 2025: A £42M Price Tag but at what cost?

The United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) is the world’s flagship gathering on ocean issues. Held every few years, it brings together governments, scientists, activists and corporations to discuss solutions for marine conservation, sustainable development, and the implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14: Life Below Water.

I did some digging. I feared the worst. I wasn’t let down.

The upcoming 2025 UN Ocean Conference (9 to 13 June) in Nice will cost the city approximately £30 million on temporary structures and facilities alone, including around £8.5 million for the main pavilion (Monaco Life).

Attendees pay their own way, averaging £2,000 each for flights and accommodation. With 6,000 delegates, that’s another £12 million.

Add it up and that's over £42 million spent on one conference. Enough to fund 420 frontline marine projects at £100,000 apiece. Instead, we’re renting chairs and portaloos.

Meanwhile, SDG 14, is the least funded of all 17 SDGs. In 2019, it received just £1.8 billion, compared to £29 billion for SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure).

You’d think the goal covering 70% of the planet might command a little more respect.

We’re underfunding the very system that regulates our climate, feeds billions, and absorbs a third of our carbon emissions.

Yet we overspend on the events that are meant to save it.

What’s worse, 2019 remains the most recent year for which we have a comprehensive comparison of global SDG funding. In a world that measures everything, all the time, the fact we’re not even consistently tracking how we fund the goals meant to save the planet is a worrying sign of misplaced priorities.

Imagine if the billions spent on conference production, travel, and hospitality went directly to the people restoring coral reefs, running sustainable fisheries, defending the high seas, or stopping cetacean hunts.

What if we stopped talking about action and just… funded it?

Empowering local stakeholders with real money and real authority could lead to more effective and culturally grounded conservation strategies. Not slogans. Not pledges. Actual change.

UNOC’s Track Record: Hundreds of Pledges, Little Progress

We’ve now had two United Nations Ocean Conferences (UNOCs), New York (2017) and Lisbon (2022). Each time, hundreds of voluntary commitments were made. Declarations have been signed. Side events have brimmed with urgency and innovation. People have left feeling hopeful, and yet in the last eight years:

• Plastic pollution has surged

• Coral reefs have bleached

• Whales have been harpooned

• Fish stocks have crashed

• Sea temperatures have spiked

In other words, we’re still losing.

So what are we doing in 2025?

We’re convening. Again.

Why?

I fear it’s because we’ve learned to mistake visibility for victory. We gather, we speak, we applaud, but the ocean keeps dying.

Declarations Without Follow Through

These conferences do serve a purpose. They bring people together and elevate issues, but too often, they produce outcomes with no mechanism to enforce them. A cycle of declarations that disappear the moment the lights go down.

Since 2017, UNOCs have generated hundreds of voluntary commitments, including the Lisbon Declaration in 2022, which introduced 700 new pledges for ocean action. However, there are no enforcement mechanisms. No legally binding targets. No serious funding. Just momentum without traction.

A 2023 UN progress review found that only a fraction of these pledges had received funding or moved past the planning phase.

The recurring nature of these conferences, without significant measurable progress in reversing ocean degradation, suggests we’re mistaking motion for momentum. High-level dialogue isn’t a substitute for doing the actual work. Sadly, and rather obviously, you can’t convene your way out of an extinction event.

Real Hope Lives in the People

People.

This is where my hope comes from.

Not summits or stage lighting, but people.

The individuals I’ve met over the last 20 years. The scientists, campaigners and community leaders who keep showing up. I don’t think you can work in conservation and not be jaded, but we pull each other up, each and every day.

If we can get the funding into the hands of the people who have the plans, the doers not the speechmakers, we will succeed. If we can get binding commitments to fund the experts, we will succeed. If we can build our future around those who know how to save the ocean, and humanity with it, we will succeed.

I cannot be the only one who is thinking this?!

From Summit to Strategy

UNOCs have raised awareness, yes, but awareness alone is not impactful.

The ocean doesn’t need another summit.

• It needs a strategy.

• It needs investment.

• It needs a lifeline.

Thankfully for Steve, everything changed for Manchester City. They have won 10 major trophies across domestic and international competitions in the last 5 years. Not by luck, but by strategy. The club brought in investment. They overhauled the training facilities. Built a world-class youth academy. Developed long-term infrastructure. Invested in the best players in the world. They didn’t just talk about success, they built the conditions for it.

We need the same for the ocean.

I don’t even know how to measure success at UNOC. Without any binding laws or regulations, we are trusting hope and faith a lot.

But.

I believe in the people. If we build our future around those who’ve dedicated their lives to saving the ocean, not the politicians who rewrite climate pledges every other year, we will succeed. If those in power can finally back the people doing the work, we might finally win. If they make binding commitments to fund the experts, we can turn the tide.

Until then, the powerful will keep taking selfies and shaking hands at summits, while the sea keeps rising… but maybe, just maybe, UNOC 2025 will be different.

I want to wish my colleagues and good friends Ed Goodall and Emma Eastcott all the luck in the world as they attend UNOC next week, giving whales and dolphins a voice. They are the best of us, and if anyone can make something happen, it’s them.

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📌 PS – Please consider restacking or sharing if this piece struck a chord, it helps raise the alarm and fuels this kind of independent ocean journalism that challenges, informs and (hopefully) makes a difference.