Pacific Island leaders speak at a press conference at the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS
By Naureen Hossain
NICE, France, Jun 11 2025 – “There is no climate action without ocean action,” President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands told reporters, as she and other representatives of Pacific island states reiterated that countries must honor their climate action agreements.
“The ocean is bearing the brunt of our failure to address climate change and transition away from fossil fuels.”
Heine remarked that countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) must include how they will transition toward renewable energy sources in line with the 1.5 degree limit under the Paris Agreement.
President Surangel Whipps Jr. of Palau remarked that protecting the oceans requires countries to deliver on 1.5-aligned NDCs. He called on all countries, including major emitters from the G20 to deliver on them by September this year. “We need to adapt to shield our oceans from further harm. And that means, plain and simple, money—and money that we can use,” said Whipps Jr.
On the second day of the UN Ocean Conference, leaders and representatives from Pacific island states spoke to reporters following the Pacific-France Summit with President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders sat down with Macron to discuss the role that France could play in supporting climate resilience in the Pacific islands. They hoped that he would be an advocate for the Pacific island states and climate action within the European Union (EU), the G20 and the G7. Heine acknowledged that their meeting was not a “formal negotiating venue.” Rather, it was an opportunity to share concerns from the Pacific island states.
Whipps Jr. said that he invited Macron to invest in the Blue Pacific Prosperity Initiative and Pacific Resilience Fund. “The gap between what we need and what we have is growing dangerously wide,” said Whipps Jr. Macron was said to have committed to investing in climate financing in the region, as Whipps stressed that financing should reach the communities that would benefit from it the most without it taking months or even years to reach them.
“In the Pacific, our security depends on climate action,” said Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology and Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management, Vanuatu. “Without climate action, we face a very dangerous future.”
Venues such as the Ocean Conference provide opportunities for underrepresented communities and smaller countries to bring global attention to their challenges with the hope of effecting forward momentum, even as the process can be slow-moving.
“A lot of these changes that happen at the International level, when they do happen, are a result of these coalitions of the willing,” said Regenvanu, pointing to how nearly 50 countries have ratified the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) and that 37 countries have issued a moratorium on seabed mining.
“It’s the way you get to change—building support.”
IPS UN Bureau Report