For almost four decades, I’ve watched climate change accelerate, profoundly impacting our coasts and seas. The upcoming UN Ocean Conference in Nice (June 9-13, 2025) isn’t just a meeting; it’s a make-or-break moment for the Ocean. While I cannot attend directly, I hope to help via video, with my focus remaining on the urgent need for action. I have also resurrected my blog ‘ClimateShifts.org‘, which was started in June 2007.  I am not sure why I am doing this, except that it feels like we need to help people understand that the extreme dangers that we now face, as record-breaking climate events are piling up.

Over the last 20 years, ocean temperatures have surged, leading to massive marine heatwaves, coral bleaching and mortality. The ocean has absorbed over 90% of the excess heat and CO2, causing widespread warming and ocean acidification. This sustained warming has led to a documented decline in marine biodiversity (Pörtner et al., 2022). Acidification from CO2 flooding the top layers of the ocean threatens shell-forming organisms, while deoxygenation is creating “dead zones” (Doney et al., 2012). The strength of storms is escalating, combining with sea level, and threatens to literally wash people and ecosystems away. These aren’t isolated incidents; they’re systemic changes at an unprecedented pace.

What I Hope Comes from the UNOC Conference

I hope for concrete, actionable commitments:

• Drastically scaled-up emissions reductions: The conference must amplify the call for immediate, aggressive cuts to global emissions. Politicians who deny reality are either ignorant or dishonest.
• Significant investment in marine protection: We need to expand marine protected areas to prevent the loss of coastal habitats like mangroves, seagrasses and coral reefs.
• Robust educational, financial and technological support: Developing nations, most vulnerable to ocean impacts, need equitable access to funding and expertise.  This must be associated with increased access to knowledge and resources.
• Renewed global urgency and collaboration: The ocean knows no borders, and neither do its challenges. We need stronger international partnerships.  We also need to call it as it is: this is a global emergency which is already threatening millions of people.

Will We Look Back and See the Beginning of a Solution?

My greatest hope is that the 2025 UN Ocean Conference marks a pivotal shift. I want us to look back and see the moment that the world truly grasped the challenge and moved from incremental steps to transformative action. It won’t be easy, but with collective will and scientific knowledge, we can turn the tide. Let’s make this conference the beginning of a future where our oceans and their people thrive for generations.  We can do it!

As they say, onward and upwards!