Marine protection: Germany praises "Nice Action Plan"

According to Germany's Environment Minister Carsten Schneider, the United Nations Ocean Conference in France has given an important boost to marine conservation: It has "significantly advanced marine conservation, despite the geopolitically difficult situation," Schneider said at the conclusion of the five-day meeting in Nice.

According to Schneider, the German government has committed to continuing several ongoing programs, particularly the recovery and destruction of old munitions from the North and Baltic Seas. A German-French team of experts will be established for this purpose.

By 2031, Germany plans to invest almost 100 million euros in the preservation and restoration of salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and algal forests. This is intended to strengthen the CO2 storage capacity and resilience of the oceans, it said.

France Nice 2025 | Carsten Schneider at the lectern at the UN Ocean Conference — Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) in Nice Photo: Sascha Hilgers/dpa/picture alliance

The international community developed a "Nice Action Plan." It is a collection of voluntary commitments by individual countries. However, the massive financial pledges demanded by poorer island states failed to materialize.

Some key points of the UN Ocean Conference at a glance:

In light of the United States ' unilateral move to promote environmentally damaging deep-sea mining , 37 countries in Nice called for a precautionary pause on this practice. Germany also supports a corresponding moratorium. "We simply still know too little about the potential damage," emphasized Federal Minister Schneider. Several major banks announced that they would not finance deep-sea mining projects.

Arctic | Inflatable boats around a banner with the inscription — Activists place a banner reading "Stop deep-sea mining!" in the Arctic (in September) Photo: Greenpeace/Bianca Vitale

In April, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing the mining of minerals from the seabed, which is currently unregulated. Deep-sea mining threatens to destroy biodiversity, release climate-damaging CO2, and introduce heavy metals into the food chain.

The high seas make up approximately 60 to 70 percent of the oceans, yet there are still hardly any regulations in international waters. The Convention on the Protection of the High Seas, adopted by the United Nations two years ago, aims to change that. Among other things, it lays the foundation for designating large protected areas. However, for the agreement to enter into force, at least 60 states must ratify it.

Contrary to the fears of environmental organizations, the international community at least came significantly closer to achieving this goal in Nice. More than a dozen states ratified the agreement at the beginning of the UN conference. This leaves only a few countries short of the 60-member mark. Experts estimate that this goal will be reached by September at the latest.

At the Nice conference, 95 countries joined forces to call for limits on the production of primary plastics. They also advocated for countries to be required to report on the production, import, and export of these materials.

Pacific Ocean 2023 | Collected plastic waste from the ocean piled up into a mountain, behind it banners with the inscription — Plastic waste collected by the organization "The Ocean Cleanup" (archive photo) Image: Cover-Images/IMAGO

In August, the international community will again discuss an agreement to combat ocean pollution in Geneva, Switzerland . Negotiations in South Korea at the end of last year ended without agreement.

An international ocean research program called "Mission Neptune" was also adopted in Nice. "The ocean is still less explored than the Moon or Mars," the final text states. In the future, an annual report on the state of the world's oceans will be presented to inform politicians and civil society.

"Touchstone" for the states

"The conference demonstrated a sincere commitment by states to the protection and sustainable use of the oceans," environmentalists declared in a joint statement. The outcome must now be measured by how ambitiously member states implement the resolutions into national policies.

For example, OceanCare Executive Director Fabienne McLellan warned that UN ocean conferences are a test case for whether the international community can achieve its self-imposed goals for ocean protection by 2030. "These include a measurable reduction in marine pollution and the transition to sustainable fishing methods. However, we are still a long way from achieving these goals."

The next UN Ocean Conference is scheduled to take place in 2028.

wa/AR (dpa, afp)