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STORY: UN / OCEAN CONFERENCE OPENING
TRT: 3:17
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 5 JUNE 2017, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN Headquarters
5 JUNE 2017, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
3. Med shot, podium
4. SOUNDBITE (Englilsh) Isabella Lovin, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden:
“Mankind has always believed that the ocean was endless, that it was infinite, that it would be utterly impossible for us humans to affect it in any significant way at all. But we can and we have. The ocean is now 30 percent more acidic than in pre-industrial times. Big predatory fish stocks have declined between 70 and 90 percent. The surface waters are getting warmer. In some areas, there is more micro plastics than plankton.”
5. Cutaway, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (Englilsh) Isabella Lovin, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden:
“We know what needs to be done. We know the ocean is broken. And we now need to seat down together in the next five days and make a long to do list we all need to be ticking off working together in order to fix it. This is the moment and a better moment will never arrive.”
7. Wide shot, applause
8. Wide shot, GA Hall
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji:
“Climate change and the state of our oceans cannot be separated. They are interlinked, because rising sea levels as well as oceans acidity and warmer waters have a direct effect on our reefs and fish stocks and on prosperity of our costal community.”
10. Cutaway, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji:
“I particularly want to appeal to young people across the world to do what you can to highlight this crisis and become an agent for change, wheatear it is collecting plastic bottles from a beach or banding together to clean up our coastal areas. Every single person in the world can make a difference.”
12. Med shot, podium
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We are here today to turn the tide. We created these problems. With decisive, coordinated global action, we can solve them. Sustainable Development Goal 14, the Goal of the Oceans, must be our roadmap to clean, healthy oceans. The essential first step is ending the artificial dichotomy between economic demands and the health of our seas. The conservation and sustainable use of marine resources are two sides of the same coin.”
14. Cutaway, delegates
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The United Nations has a critical role to play. We are committed to providing integrated, coordinated support for the implementation of all the historic agreements of the past year, including the Sustainable Development Goal of the Oceans. I am determined to break down barriers between UN agencies and programmes, to improve performance and accountability.”
16. Wide shot, applause
Opening the Ocean Conference in New York today, the United Nations Secretary-General said “we created these problems” adding that “the essential first step is ending the artificial dichotomy between economic demands and the health of our seas.”
The high-level “United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” is taking place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 5 to 9 June 2017.
The Governments of Fiji and Sweden are co-hosting responsibilities the Conference.
Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate, and Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin said “mankind has always believed that the ocean was endless, that it was infinite, that it would be utterly impossible for us humans to affect it in any significant way at all. But we can and we have.”
The world’s oceans are 30 percent more acidic now than in pre-industrial era while the number of big, predatory species such as tuna and sharks has decline by 70 to 90 percent.
Lovin said “we now need to seat down together in the next five days and make a long to do list we all need to be ticking off working together in order to fix it. This is the moment and a better moment will never arrive.”
The other co-chair of the conference, Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji said, “Climate change and the state of our oceans cannot be separated. They are interlinked, because rising sea levels as well as oceans acidity and warmer waters have a direct effect on our reefs and fish stocks and on prosperity of our coastal community.”
The Prime Minister appealed to the “young people across the world to do what you can to highlight this crisis and become an agent for change, whether it is collecting plastic bottles from a beach or banding together to clean up our coastal areas.”
Bainimarama also said “every single person in the world can make a difference.”
Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations said “we are here today to turn the tide. We created these problems. With decisive, coordinated global action, we can solve them.”
Guterres said that “the United Nations has a critical role to play” and promised to “break down barriers between UN agencies and programmes, to improve performance and accountability.”
The Ocean Conference aims to set the agenda to reverse the decline in the health of world oceans by achieving a concise, focused, intergovernmentally agreed call for action to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 14.
