UN Ocean Project

The ocean ecosystem is essential for a healthy planet: our largest carbon sink, it produces more than half of the oxygen we breathe, supports 80% of the world’s biodiversity and provides a vast food source for humans and other species. But it faces myriad and mounting threats.

Every year, warming, eutrophication and acidification intensifies, destroying coral reefs and endangering marine species. The ocean is littered with approximately 171 trillion pieces of plastic (and counting), and an estimated 90% of global fish stocks are overfished or fully exploited.

To advance Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Below Water, the UN announced that 2021-2030 would be the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Now at the halfway point, much remains to be done to combat the crises confronting the ocean.

The UN Ocean Conferences are a mechanism for countries to come together to try to achieve SDG14, by accelerating actions to conserve, protect, and sustainably use ocean resources.

The first conference was held in New York in 2017 and the next, delayed two years by the pandemic, in Lisbon in 2022. The third UN Ocean Conference will be held in Nice, France in June 2025.

At this crucial juncture, it is vitally important for the public to be informed about the progress, or lack thereof, on ocean conservation.

However, news organizations and journalists, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, often lack the resources and capacity to participate in these global summits and communicate the implications of their outcomes to the public. Recognizing the need for greater awareness to drive action on ocean conservation at all levels, EJN, through its UN Ocean Fellowships and other ocean-focused programming, seeks to support journalists with funds and training to raise awareness about ocean governance and conservation policies.

• The first phase of the UN Ocean Project saw EJN bring 11 journalists to the UN Ocean Conference in 2022, with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch). We also hosted a series of webinars to help report on ocean issues, and awarded story grants to support reporting on topics relevant to SDG14.
• Learn about the ocean-focused media development activities we’ve implemented, resources produced and stories supported through our Ocean Media Initiative.

Now, with support from the Bloomberg Ocean Fund, EJN will select a cohort of five journalists from around the world to attend UNOC2025 so they can provide first-hand coverage of the summit to their audiences, with daily briefings and editorial support from a media trainer.

Their reporting will help ensure under-served communities most reliant on the ocean have access to the information they need, from sources they trust, to engage with these multilateral processes and hold their governments accountable for their commitments. 

Banner image: Northern shortfin squid (Illex illecebrosus) seen actively feeding on a large swarm of crustaceans during the Deep Connections 2019 expedition / Credit: The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Deep Connections 2019, via Flickr.