UNDP launches Ocean Promise to catalyse progress on SDG 14

LISBON: At the United Nations Conference held on July 2, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced that it will enable 100 coastal countries to realise the maximum potential of their blue economies through sustainable, low-emission, and climate-resilient ocean action by 2030. The 100 coastal countries will include all Small Island Developing States as well.

The UNDP’s Ocean Promise, launched at the UN Ocean Conference held in Lisbon, highlights that every penny invested in achieving the Paris Agreement is a penny invested in ocean health, which shall create foundation for the sustainable blue economy. The Promise demarcates actions in key sectors to create jobs and livelihood, reduce poverty and inequality, improve food security, accelerate economic growth, and promote gender equity.

The major announcement by UNDP comes at a time, when Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the ocean economy over the past decade averages at only US $1.3 billion per year and the scale of public and private investment for ocean restoration and protection around the world remains calamitously inadequate.

The Ocean Promise is a blue economy vision of UNDP that emphasizes on restoring of the near $1 trillion in annual socio-economic losses that has occurred due to ocean mismanagement. The promise also mentions helping nations in tapping new and emerging ocean sectors for increased ocean-related socio-economic opportunities.

Usha Rao-Monari, Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator, UNDP, said that the organisation will continue to work across issues and scales, from local to global, in close partnership with governments, UN agency partners, intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, communities and private sector, towards accelerating progress on Sustainable Development Goal 14. She added that the ocean is a vital buffer against the impacts of climate change and that saving ocean means protecting everyone’s future.