At sea on ocean goals

With UN pledges on ocean health remaining voluntary, India must chart its own course to safeguard its maritime interests

- SHYAM SARAN

Humanity is terrestrial, but its origins lie deep in the ocean. In 1967, when the world was negotiating the historic Law of the Sea, a Maltese diplomat, Arvid Prado said: "The dark oceans were the womb of life; from the protecting oceans life emerged. We still bear in our bodies — in our blood, in the salty bitterness of our tears — the marks of this remote past."

And the umbilical cord that ties us to the ocean is the stuff of life itself. The ocean generates half of the planet's oxygen. It absorbs 30 per cent of all carbon emissions. It moderates atmospheric heat. It is the largest carbon sink on earth. If it begins to lose its role as the earth's climate regulator, planetary extinction will not be far behind.

Restoring the health of the ocean has been a long-term concern. The Law of the Sea, signed in 1982 (but entered into force only in 1994), contained provisions on the protection of the marine environment. But it is in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, that there is a comprehensive road map — in SDG 14 — for "conserving and sustainably using the world's oceans, seas, and marine resources." There are 10 targets to be achieved by 2030, including eliminating marine pollution, stopping overfishing, and addressing ocean acidification. None of these targets are remotely near achievement. The UN Ocean Conference — the first of which was convened in New York in 2017, and the second in Lisbon in 2022 — was directed towards reviewing progress on the SDG 14 targets and enhancing implementation. But the record so far has been dismal.

The independent non-profit OceanCare states, "Since Lisbon 2022, we've seen ocean conditions worsen across multiple indicators while governments offer aspirational language without much tangible action. The window for effective ocean action is likely to close within the next 5-10 years."