The 30×30 Ocean Action Plan – a call to action for governments and stakeholders to align efforts, scale up protection, and seize opportunities presented by international agreements to close the gap and protect ocean ecosystems critical to climate resilience, food security, and community livelihoods.
Governments and stakeholders have a narrow window—just five years—to safeguard the world’s oceans. At the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) this week, Ambassador Peter Thomson, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, unveiled the 30×30 Ocean Action Plan, a strategic roadmap urging swift, coordinated efforts to protect 30 percent of marine ecosystems by 2030.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
A Call to Action for Climate Resilience and Food Security
Guided by the latest data and analysis, the 30×30 Action Plan underscores that only 8.6 percent of the ocean falls under marine protected areas (MPAs), with a mere 2.7 percent designated as fully or highly protected. Without rapid expansion, the world will miss its target—and with it, vital ecosystems that underpin climate resilience, food security and the livelihoods of coastal communities.
“We have five years to get this right,” Ambassador Thomson warned. “We know what works. We know who is leading. We know where support is needed. Now is the time for urgent ocean action.”
A companion report, The Ocean Protection Gap: Assessing Progress toward the 30×30 Target, reveals a stark funding shortfall: just $1.2 billion flows annually toward ocean protection—only a fraction of the $15.8 billion needed each year. Yet the economic upside is clear: safeguarding 30 percent of the seas could unlock $85 billion per year by 2050 in avoided costs and returns from natural coastal defenses, seagrass carbon storage and revitalized fisheries.
Mobilizing Business as Ocean Stewards
Alfredo Giron, Head of Ocean at the World Economic Forum, called on ocean industries—energy, shipping, tourism, seafood and beyond—to move “from compliance to co-leadership.” He argued that businesses must not only minimize harm but maximize positive impact, securing a seat at the table for ocean governance and collaborating at scale.
“Our economies and societies cannot function without the services that nature, and our ocean, provide,” Giron said. “Through maximizing opportunities to collaborate, we can deliver action for our ocean at a far greater, and faster, scale.”
The Action Plan reviews mechanisms such as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement and evaluates large, in-design MPAs that could boost global protection by an additional 4.0 percent, raising total coverage to 12.3 percent. While this progress remains well shy of the 30×30 ambition, the report identifies strategic opportunities to catalyze political will, mobilize finance and empower communities.
Bottlenecks and a Two-Pronged Strategy
The report highlights systemic barriers—fragmented data, political inertia, financing gaps and insufficient inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. To overcome them, the Action Plan outlines two core pillars:
1. Enable global conditions for success
- Ratify and operationalize the BBNJ Agreement
- Align national strategies with global commitments
- Secure long-term financing
- Strengthen coordination, monitoring and data systems
2. Accelerate protection in key geographies
- Expand MPAs in national waters
- Develop high seas MPAs under BBNJ provisions
- Empower Indigenous Peoples and local communities through inclusive governance, legal recognition and resourcing
Empowering Regional Seas and Local Voices
Susan Gardner, Director of the Ecosystems Division at UN Environment Programme, emphasized the indispensable role of the Regional Seas Conventions. “We need to urgently step up our efforts on coverage, ensuring protected areas are well managed with effective, inclusive governance and engagement of local communities,” she said.
The 30×30 Ocean Action Plan is designed to inform national roadmaps ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP17 in Armenia next year. Beyond governments, it invites NGOs, private funders and ocean industries to bolster marine protection efforts, creating an inclusive coalition committed to sustaining ocean health and human well-being by 2030.
Read the full report here.
Lead image courtesy of Elliot Connor from Pexels (School of Fish Swimming)
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