{"id":313,"date":"2024-09-18T10:15:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T10:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/blue-justice\/?p=313"},"modified":"2024-09-18T10:27:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T10:27:29","slug":"countdown-to-un-ocean-conference-2025-mainstreaming-ocean-justice-in-the-blue-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/blue-justice\/2024\/09\/18\/countdown-to-un-ocean-conference-2025-mainstreaming-ocean-justice-in-the-blue-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Countdown to UN Ocean Conference 2025: Mainstreaming ocean justice in the blue economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Senia Febrica and Celine Germond-Duret<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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As blue economy initiatives expand around the world and stakeholders further exploit coastal and marine resources, it is critical to deepen our understanding of how the blue economy can be just and fair. This blogpost calls upon all stakeholders attending the UN Ocean Conference 2025 to ensure that traditionally overlooked stakeholders, such as coastal communities, are at the centre of the blue economy process.<\/span><\/p>

In the context of the blue economy, the political declaration of the UN Ocean Conference 2022 noted the contributions of the ocean in providing \u201cdecent jobs and livelihoods,\u2026a means for maritime transportation, including for global trade, and\u201d in \u201cplaying an essential role in sustainable development, a sustainable ocean-based economy and poverty eradication” (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2024<\/a>). Building from the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, France and Costa Rica will co-host the high-level 2025 United Nations in Nice, France, on 9 \u2013 13 June 2025. The overarching theme of the Conference \u201cAccelerating action and mobilising all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean<\/a>\u201d stresses the pressing need to support further and urgent action to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.<\/span><\/p>

The concept of blue economy is defined as \u201cthe sustainable pursuit of economic activities resulting from the exploitation of coastal and marine resources\u201d (Germond-Duret and Germond, 2022<\/a>). It has raised both hope that environmental protection will be at the heart of (economic) activities at sea, and concerns that it will facilitate further unsustainable exploitation of coastal and marine resources. The blue economy concept can be seen as being part of a wider \u201cblue acceleration\u201d process, \u201ca race among diverse and often competing interests for ocean food, material, and space\u201d (Jouffray et al., 2020<\/a>); for example, the debate over deep sea mining illustrates the tension between the prospect of future economic benefits and environmental concerns in the marine space (Childs, 2019<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>

Current concerns about ocean injustice results from two interacting dynamics. First, a long-standing sea blindness, that is \u201ca general lack of interest for the marine space, and the failure to recognise how it connects and matters to societies, cultures and people’s identity\u201d (Germond-Duret and Germond, 2022<\/a>); and second, a general disregard for the social element in debates on sustainable development, whether on land or at sea. The social dimension of sustainable development is indeed often overlooked, with current framings situating sustainability solely within the tension between economic growth and environmental protection (forgetting its social dimension in the process) (Vallance et al., 2011<\/a>; Victor, 2012<\/a>; Germond-Duret, 2014<\/a>). Three reports published recently by the UN Special the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, Elisa Morgera and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Surya Deva call for the recognition and consideration of social, cultural and human rights dimensions in blue economy development.\u00a0 Key points from their reports are listed below.<\/span><\/p>

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change to the UN General Assembly on\u00a0 \u201cAccess to information on climate change and human rights\u201d (<\/strong>A\/79\/176<\/strong><\/a>)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>