UN OCEAN CONFERENCE FAO-IMO-COSTA RICA-FRANCE-SOUTH AFRICA-UNDP SIDE EVENT: “SUSTAINABLE SHIPPING: OUR OCEAN - OUR OBLIGATION - OUR OPPORTUNITY” Speech

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to join you at this important side event, co-organized with our partners and colleagues from the International Maritime Organization, and UNDP, as well as the governments of Costa Rica, France and South Africa.

As the global community increasingly turns its attention to ocean health and wealth, we need to turn our attention to the growing challenge of marine plastic pollution.

Today’s event highlights the fruitful collaboration between FAO and IMO to reduce marine litter, which includes partnership projects focused on marine litter from sea-based sources, supported by Norway and the Republic of Korea,

As well as an upcoming project funded by the Global Environment Facility to properly manage plastics from the shipping and fisheries sectors.

FAO and IMO’s joint work under these programmes and projects is a model of multilateral cooperation.

Together, we are providing direct support to countries to implement international instruments, improve port waste management, raise awareness among fishers and seafarers, and reduce the use of plastics onboard.

We are working in a spirit of capacity building, innovation, and partnership.

This work aligns with FAO’s Blue Transformation Roadmap, which aims to transform aquatic food systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable.

Reducing ocean litter is not just a matter of environmental responsibility — it is fundamental to ensuring sustainable fisheries, safeguarding marine biodiversity, and supporting the livelihoods of coastal communities.

We must scale up efforts. We need to leverage public-private partnerships, and support innovation across the maritime and fisheries value chains.

As we convene here today, I urge all of us to reaffirm our shared commitment: to protect our ocean, to act against marine plastic pollution, and to create sustainable and resilient aquatic food systems — for people, for planet and prosperity, for future generations.

Let us turn Obligation into Action, and Challenges into Opportunity for Our Ocean, for our Planet, and for Prosperity, for current and future generations.

Thank you.