NAIROBI, March 1 (Xinhua) — The United Nations has called for the use of science-based innovative solutions in order to halt the decline in the health of oceans globally.
Peter Thomson, the special envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Ocean, said Monday that science has the solution that is crucial toward restoring the health of marine and coastal ecosystems.
“The international community needs to produce solutions that could lead to starting a new chapter in the global ocean action,” Thomson said at a forum on oceans held on the sidelines of the fifth resumed session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) underway in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
Thomson emphasized there was an urgent need to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development and for use by future generations.
He observed that for a long time micro-plastics have unleashed health challenges to consumers of ocean resources.
Inger Andersen, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said that oceans must be kept healthy since millions of populations globally rely on them for survival while urging nations to embrace the blue economy since it is part of the solution to the growing ocean pollution and the climate crisis.
She urged UN member states to take keen attention to climate change, plastic pollution and biodiversity loss in order to transform livelihoods and emphasized the need to embark on the transfer of technology and finance to save the planet from the global crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste.
She also called on fishing communities to embrace sustainable fisheries and ensure that plastics are not thrown into the water systems.
Macharia Kamau, the principal secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, observed that low funding toward blue oceans is part of the delay in meeting the fourteenth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG14), adding that 2 percent of funds that have been allocated through green climate projects is not enough for the island states and oceans programs.
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