UN Ocean Summit in France Tackles Deep-Sea Mining and Marine Conservation Goals

The third UN Ocean Conference commenced on June 9, 2025, in Nice, France. The conference has seen leaders and policymakers from across the globe gather to discuss key marine environmental concerns such as deep-sea mining, conservation of marine parks, and enhanced financial contributions towards the safeguarding of the oceans. The summit comes during a period when international focus is increasingly on the world's oceans being in a precarious position and in need of action and global partnership.

Marine protected area development and conservation is one of the most important issues of debate at the summit. A number of countries have committed to new marine protected areas in their territorial waters. Despite this, there are concerns over the efficacy of these zones since most nations still permit environmentally destructive activities such as bottom trawling within so-called protected areas. Currently, only a 3% coverage of the planet's oceans is actually protected from industrial use, well short of the goal to preserve 30% of oceanic space by 2030.

The second most pressing issue is the entry into force of the 2023 high seas treaty. The treaty seeks to safeguard marine biological diversity beyond national boundaries. France had also attempted to garner at least 60 ratifications that would cause the entry into force of the treaty at the summit. The target was not achieved, and only half of the required ratifications were secured prior to the conference. Those yet to ratify the agreement are being called upon to set out their timelines and commitment. 

The summit also includes robust diplomatic efforts led by France to pursue an international moratorium on deep-sea mining. This extractive activity, carried out by the far least explored regions of the ocean, is highly controversial owing to the relative inexperience of deep-sea ecosystems. Although 33 countries officially objected to seabed mining, additional backing is still sought at the summit. The matter is to be brought up for consideration at next July's International Seabed Authority, where negotiations are to resume on regulating this new activity.

Though the summit will end in a political declaration recognizing what is at stake for the oceans, the document is not legally enforceable and lacks mention of fossil fuels. Its value, to the critics, is the real commitments made by individual countries attending and the amount of money that they commit to allocate towards conservation.

While it is a high-level UN meeting, the summit is not actually a treaty negotiation and will not be legally binding in its results. Governments are, however, encouraged to make substantial financial commitments in an attempt to close the wide funding gap between marine protection. Voluntary commitments in this regard are hoped to close the gap between government declarations of green intention and green action.

France's host nation for the conference is testimony to its dynamic leadership in global environmental diplomacy, particularly ocean management. Even though the results of the summit cannot be legally enforced, they are influential in shaping future talks and global environmental policy.

Source & Credits:
2025 AFP – Written by Nick Perry, edited by Andrew Zinin. Edited for web publication.