Restoring health of oceans

President of the United Nations General Assembly Peter Thomson signs a card at a press conference after receiving over 1 million signatures urging governments to protect 30 percent of the ocean by 2030 from Sir Richard Branson at the Ocean Conference at the United Nations in New York City, U.S., June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney

PARTNERSHIP is one of the cornerstones for successfully implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This partnership brought Fiji and Sweden together as they co-presided over the Ocean Conference (United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14) held from June 5–9 in New York.

At the end of the Conference, a political declaration – a Call for Action – was adopted together with over 1,300 voluntary commitments on how to sustainably manage and use the ocean. The Call for Action is unique as it is coherently linked to the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. It affirms the inter-linkages and synergies among all the SDGs and their integrated and indivisible character.