“are an essential element in our emerging vision for sustainable development, including the new set of sustainable development goals now being prepared to guide the global fight against poverty for the next 15 years” (United Nations Environment Programme, 2015). Noting that adopting agreements on climate change and ending poverty “will demand that
[Governments] look at the essential role of [the] world’s oceans”, he called for a commitment to using “the gift of the oceans peacefully, equitably and sustainably for generations to come”.