Speaking on the second day of the Nice-based forum, Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Ines Maria Chapman, leading her country’s delegation, insisted on the urgency of transforming human behavior towards the oceans, which have been threatened by phenomena such as overexploitation, pollution, and climate change.
We come to this Conference driven by the urgency of mobilizing the international community to protect marine ecosystems and strengthen ocean governance, Chapman said.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the 2030 Agenda in September 2015, a multilateral instrument that includes, among its goals, the protection and sustainable management of oceans, seas, and marine resources.
Chapman called to enhance the materialization of that tool, and in particular about the issue that gathers in Nice delegations from 180 countries, more than 50 of which are led by heads of State and Government.
The Cuban deputy prime minister stated that her country trusts in multilateralism as the only way to solve environmental challenges, whose effects are not limited to national borders and are not proportionate to the climate debt accumulated by each State.
She also urged the nations that signed the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction to intensify efforts for its early entry into force.
Chapman is fulfilling an intense agenda in the context of her participation in the 3rd United Nations Conference on Oceans, which follows those held in New York in 2017 and Lisbon in 2022.
jrr/iff/mem/wmr
