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STORY: UN / HLPF LIFE BELOW WATER
TRT: 2:10
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 JULY 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
17 JULY 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Elizabeth McLeod, Global Ocean Director, the Nature Conservancy:
“Despite the fact that we know that oceans are contributing up to $3 trillion annually to global GDP, they support over 30 million jobs supporting restoration and conservation efforts around the world. They are chronically underfunded. And this situation is compounded not just by the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis, but by the growing debt crisis. Developing nations now carry an astonishing $11 trillion in sovereign debt, which means that they're having to face really difficult tradeoffs about debt repayment instead of ocean protection or social services or climate adaptation.”
4. Wide shot, conference room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Elizabeth McLeod, Global Ocean Director, the Nature Conservancy:
“To fully deliver SDG 14, we have to harness cutting edge tools and technology. We have to implement existing climate, biodiversity and sustainability commitments, establish the innovative financing that's necessary, and ensure inclusive governance and the equitable distribution of benefits.”
6. Wide shot, conference room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Editrudith Lukanga, Secretary-General, African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFISHNET/WFF):
“We need to co-design a robust dimension that secure food and livelihood functions, create direct access, finance windows for community and women groups linked to ecological and social outcomes. We need also to invest in participatory, gender disaggregated data systems and also integrate safety at sea and decent work into conservation and blue food investments.”
8. Wide shot, conference room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Charles Tellier, Deputy to the Special Envoy of France for UNOC3:
“We need more innovation, we need emerging technologies. And I think, you know, artificial intelligence, big data - the digital twin of the ocean. All of this will provide the information that we need to monitor the state of the global marine environment and also explore what the scenarios for action and impact could be.”
10. Wide shot, conference room
SDG 14 life below water counts amongst the most underfunded and off-track goals. At a High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) session, panelists examined opportunities to reverse its current trajectory through inclusive, science-driven, and transformative action.
Speaking at the session themed under “SDG 14 and interlinkages with other SDGs – Life below water”, Elizabeth McLeod, Global Ocean Director at the Nature Conservancy said, despite the fact that oceans are contributing up to $3 trillion annually to global GDP, and support over 30 million jobs supporting restoration and conservation efforts around the world. They are chronically underfunded.
Mcleod added, “this situation is compounded not just by the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis, but by the growing debt crisis.”
“Developing nations now carry an astonishing $11 trillion in sovereign debt, which means that they're having to face really difficult tradeoffs about debt repayment instead of ocean protection or social services or climate adaptation,” she stressed.
To fully deliver SDG 14, McLeod said, “we have to harness cutting edge tools and technology. We have to implement existing climate, biodiversity and sustainability commitments, establish the innovative financing that's necessary, and ensure inclusive governance and the equitable distribution of benefits.”
Editrudith Lukanga, the Secretary-General of African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network also spoke at the event.
She said, “We need to co-design a robust dimension that secure food and livelihood functions, create direct access, finance windows for community and women groups linked to ecological and social outcomes.”
“We need also to invest in participatory, gender disaggregated data systems and also integrate safety at sea and decent work into conservation and blue food investments,” Lukanga added.
Deputy to the Special Envoy of France for UNOC3, Charles Tellier, commended on the success of the Ocean Conference in Nice in June, stressing that “We need more innovation, we need emerging technologies.”
He explained that “artificial intelligence, big data - the digital twin of the ocean, all of this will provide the information that we need to monitor the state of the global marine environment and also explore what the scenarios for action and impact could be.”
SDG 14 provides the global framework for conserving and sustainably using the ocean, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development. Yet, nearly a decade into the 2030 Agenda, SDG 14 counts amongst the most underfunded and off-track goals. The ocean remains in a state of emergency due to enduring threats such as overexploitation, pollution and climate change. The 2025 Expert Group Meeting on SDG 14 emphasized persistent data gaps, fragmented governance, insufficient implementation of Marine Protected Areas, and rising vulnerability in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). At the same time, it highlighted advances in international ocean law, fisheries management, science-policy integration, and the adoption of major global frameworks such as the BBNJ Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
