The UN Deputy Secretary General, Miguel Serpa Soares, considered this Wednesday that the Lisbon Oceans Conference will produce a solid final declaration that marks a “point of no return” in relation to efforts to preserve the oceans.
I cannot conceive of the declaration not being approved. The preliminary version is very complete, very robust, with a very long text that includes a diagnosis and a detailed action program”, he said at a press conference in Lisbon.
Serpa Soares, who is Undersecretary for Legal Affairs and adviser to the Luso-Kenyan presidency at the meeting taking place in Lisbon, said that the the final declaration, which will be approved next Friday, will contain “strong language” marking the political commitment of nations to the oceans.
“I have no doubt that the funding will be there and at the level that is needed for developing countries. The money and the political will will be there, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem in the future,” she said.
“I hope a very solid decision will be made on Friday”he told reporters, stressing that “the process does not end” with the end of the second ocean conference.
In August, a new treaty will be negotiated in New York to preserve the biodiversity of international waters, outside the jurisdictions of each country, which correspond to two thirds of the oceans, he exemplified.
He recognized that “the time of the United Nations moves slowly because it involves 193 States, but the value of the United Nations is to bring them together, although not as fast” as one would like.
“One of the main achievements is the political value of this conference as a point of no return. I don’t see how world leaders can go back on commitments. We cannot go back and this is only the beginning of a much larger process. The ocean involves many entities, from the UN ‘family’ alone there are 29 working on the oceans,” he added.
Source: Observadora
