One Ocean Summit

Context:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the high-level segment of the One Ocean Summit.

About One Ocean Summit:

• The summit is being organised from February 9 to February 11, 2022 by France, in cooperation with the World Bank and United Nations in Brest.
• The One Ocean Summit is being organised with the objective of mobilising international community to take tangible action to support and preserve healthy and sustainable ocean ecosystems.
• The summit will also be addressed by several other heads of states and governments from the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Canada.
• PM Modi will address the Summit at around 2:30 pm.
• The summit will be an opportunity for gathering political leaders and all stakeholders to make a decisive contribution with tangible, bold, and actionable initiatives and commitments.
• It is the first major event, which will take place in first year of the decade dedicated to ocean.
• Summit will be held in light of French Presidency of the Council of European Union.
• This conference was first held in June 2017 in New York. It sought to mobilize action for conservation and sustainable use of the seas, oceans and marine resources. It was organised with the theme of “Our oceans, our future: partnering for implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14”. The conference was hosted by Governments of Fiji and Sweden.

SDG 14

SDG 14 aims to manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems. Read about sustainable development goal HERE.

India’s Stand at the One Ocean Summit

• India has always been a maritime civilization. India’s ancient scriptures and literature talk about the gifts of the oceans including marine life.
• India’s security and prosperity are linked to oceans. India’s ”Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative” contains marine resources as a key pillar.
• India supports the French initiative of a ”High Ambition Coalition on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction”.
  • The coalition gathers parties which are committed, at the highest political level, to achieve an ambitious outcome of the ongoing negotiations on a Treaty of the High Seas (“the implementing agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction”), under the auspices of the United Nations.
  • The “BBNJ Treaty”, also known as the “Treaty of the High Seas”, is an international agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, currently under negotiation at the United Nations.
  • This new instrument is being developed within the framework of the United Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the main international agreement governing human activities at sea.
• India is committed to eliminating single-use plastic. India recently undertook a nation-wide awareness campaign to clean plastic and other waste from coastal areas.
  • Three hundred thousand young people collected almost 13 tons of plastic waste.
• India will be happy to join France in launching a global initiative on single use plastics.
  • Recently, the Ministry Of Environment Forest And Climate Change has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 which prohibit specific single-use plastic items which have “low utility and high littering potential” by 2022.
  • India has also directed its Navy to contribute100 ship-days this year to cleaning plastic waste from the seas.

Other Global initiatives to Protect Oceans

• United Nations Ocean Conference: The 2017 UN’s Ocean Conference sought to mobilise action for the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources.
  • Next conference is scheduled to be held in 2022.
• Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development: The UN has proclaimed a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to support efforts to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health and gather ocean stakeholders worldwide behind a common framework that will ensure ocean science can fully support countries in creating improved conditions for sustainable development of the Ocean.
• World Oceans Day: June 8^th is World Oceans Day, the United Nations day for celebrating the role of the oceans in our everyday life and inspiring action to protect the ocean and sustainably use marine resources.
• India- Norway Ocean Dialogue: In 2019, the Indian and Norwegian governments agreed to work more closely on oceans by signing a MoU and establishing the India-Norway Ocean Dialogue.
• India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI): It is an open, non-treaty based initiative for countries to work together for cooperative and collaborative solutions to common challenges in the region.
  • IPOI draws on existing regional architecture and mechanisms to focus on seven pillars: Maritime Security, Maritime Ecology, Maritime Resources, Capacity Building and Resource Sharing, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Science, Technology and Academic Cooperation and Trade Connectivity and Maritime Transport.
• GloLitter Partnerships Project: It is launched by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UNs (FAO) and initial funding from the Government of Norway. It is aimed to prevent and reduce marine plastic litter from shipping and fisheries.

Source: PIB

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