UK under pressure to step up marine protections

THE UK is under pressure to step up marine protections as the UN ocean summit kicks off in France.

- By REBECCA SPEARE-COLE

Governments, business leaders, scientists and campaigners are gathering for the third UN Ocean Conference in Nice, which runs from Monday to Friday.

The multilateral forum is seen as a critical opportunity to build momentum for protecting the world’s oceans, which face unprecedented warming, sea level rises and acidification as well as ecosystem decline, overfishing and plastic pollution.

The spotlight will be on the commitments that individual governments make to reduce the impact on their territorial waters, such as banning the damaging fishing practice of bottom trawling in marine protected areas (MPAs). But the world will also be watching which countries ratify the UN High Seas Treaty - a pact to establish protected areas across international waters.