2022 UN Ocean Conference: Statement During Member States Briefing

Amb. Ana Paula Zacarias (Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Portugal to the UN),

Mr. Liu Zhenmin (UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, and UN Ocean Conference Secretary-General)

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you all for joining us today for this important briefing as we head toward the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon next month.

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Kenya, I take this opportunity to express my appreciation to co-hosts Portugal, the UN Special Envoy for the Ocean and the UN Secretariat for all the ongoing efforts to ensure the Ocean Conference delivers on the mandate entrusted to us.

In 2020, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we took the decision to postpone the Conference to 2022 in the hope for a global recovery from the pandemic that would ensure a more inclusive and impactful in-person conference.

Cognizant that a lot more remains to be done towards an equitable recovery, deliberate international coordination and collaboration has enabled us to meet here today. In the same vein and as per the theme of the conference, we have a collective responsibility to scale-up ocean action based on science and innovation to reverse the decline in ocean health and ensure sustainable use of ocean and marine resources, fully achieving sustainable development goal 14.

The 2022 UN Ocean Conference will be the second UN conference of its kind targeting to promote support for the implementation of goal 14. It materializes Kenya and Portugal's commitment to address the challenges of maintaining a healthy and productive ocean, as a follow-up to the 2017 UN Ocean conference.

Numerous commitments have been made since the 2017 Ocean Conference, the 2018 Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi, and others in the recent past. These initiatives have built interest in and momentum on the road to Lisbon. We would like to underscore the importance of monitoring previous commitments and deploying science-based ocean management solutions with interlinkages to the achievement of other sustainable development goals.

Excellencies,

The ocean is a vast untapped economic development frontier. It is a source of food and livelihoods for millions of people worldwide. Unfortunately, human action threatens the ocean system. Transformative and action-oriented change to counter cumulative anthropogenic impacts on our ocean and marine resources requires meaningful participation of all stakeholders.

Kenya and Portugal's commitment to ensuring an inclusive and successful 2022 UN Ocean Conference is demonstrated by the personal engagement and support of our two Heads of State and Government to the preparatory process. They will be present in Lisbon and it is our hope to have delegations led at the highest possible level. In this regard, we thank Member States who have confirmed the participation of their Ministers in the 8 Interactive dialogues.

We are counting on the wide participation of national and local government representatives, innovators, scientists, business community, youth, women and so on. A number of special and side-events will be taking place on the margins of the conference, notably the Sustainable Blue Economy and Investment Forum, the Youth and Innovation Forum, the Localizing Action for the Ocean, among others.

We urge you to fully engage in these events to enhance partnerships in multidisciplinary research, technology transfer, mobilization of resources, capacity building together with traditional and experiential knowledge-sharing.

Excellencies,

In 2022, we must raise our ambitions to develop innovative, tangible and measurable solutions to reverse the decline in ocean health. These will be reflected in the adoption of an intergovernmentally agreed on Political Declaration and generation of new and effective voluntary commitments.

We thank Grenada and Denmark for coordinating the intergovernmental consultations and appreciate the participation of all delegations. We want encourage member states to draw-up and register their voluntary commitments in this collective effort.

Excellencies, Distinguished delegates,

As I conclude, we reiterate that oceans are about the people and the communities that depend on oceans for survival. No one must be left behind. I look forward to seeing you all in Lisbon.

Thank you