Oceans of opportunity squeezed dry by unsustainable use

In the run-up to the UN Ocean Conference 2025 in June, the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, emphasised that oceans are essential to all life, by sustaining biodiversity, regulating the climate and generating oxygen.

Oceans also have massive untapped economic potential that is capable of delivering food security, creating jobs and driving global trade.

“The amount of exports of ocean goods and services reached $2.2 trillion in 2023, so it’s growing very fast,” said David Vivas, UNCTAD Chief for Trade, Environment and the Sustainable Development Branch, on the sidelines of the 5th UN Ocean Forum in Geneva.

According to the UN agency, the world’s ocean economies have grown 250 per cent since 1995, far outpacing the global economy, which grew by 190 per cent over the same period.

Rising tide of potential

Behind this growth is growing South-South trade, where fresh fish exports have increased by 43 per cent; processed fish exports have risen by a staggering 89 per cent from 2021 to 2023.

Today, 600 million people are sustained by and therefore dependent on the fishing industry alone, most of them in developing countries.

According to UNCTAD, two thirds of species living in the ocean have yet to be identified, offering the potential for the discovery of new antibiotics, low-carbon foods and other bio-based materials such as plastic substitutes, which provide a $10.8 billion market opportunity alone.

In 2025, the marine biotechnology market is set to grow by more than 50 per cent this year, compared to 2023.

Looming dangers

However, despite this potential, the ocean economy faces imminent threats from poor governance, underinvestment and climate shocks.

These include our already warming oceans, rising sea levels and extreme weather hazards which endanger marine ecosystems, fish populations, coastal infrastructure and shipping routes, particularly for coastal communities.

And while most national climate plans do not take into account the ocean economy, UNCTAD’s Mr. Vivas underscored its importance in achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement as an estimated 11 per cent of all emissions worldwide are caused by ocean-based activities.

Drop in the ocean

Beyond climate-related impacts, woeful underfunding for ocean preservation and harmful practices further threaten the industry.

“While oceans represent 70 per cent of the biosphere, less than one per cent of the global development assistance is invested into its conservation and sustainable use,” Mr. Vivas told journalists in Geneva.

Achieving the universally agreed Sustainable Development Goal 14 of protecting life below water requires $175 billion annually, yet only $4 billion has been contributed from national funds, philanthropists and private investment, making it the most underfunded sustainability goal (SDG).

The sum “is nothing less than peanuts; basically, politicians are not putting their money where their mouth is,” Mr. Vivas said. “This huge part of the planet is totally invisible in terms of sustainable-use conservation for future generations.”

This stands in stark contrast to $22 billion invested in harmful subsidies in the global fishing industry, which contributes to overfishing.

Further obstacles limiting the potential of the marine economy involve extraordinarily high tariffs among developing countries. While high-income countries apply 3.2 per cent tariffs on fish products, developing countries on average apply 14 per cent tariffs among themselves, curbing trade heavily.

Buoyed by innovation

Among the UN agencies calling for action, UNCTAD recommends:

• integrating ocean-based sectors into national climate and biodiversity plans
• reducing trade barriers
• expanding data collection on ocean-related emissions, trade and investment
• ending harmful subsidies
• finalising legally binding treaties on plastic pollution

To drive urgently needed progress, the UN agency’s Ocean Forum will launch initiatives that include a renewed Ocean Trade Database to help analyse the fast-evolving sector, a proposal for a UN task force on seaweed development and a project on evidence-based ocean climate action.

The latter, involving UNCTAD and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), uses artificial intelligence (AI) and data innovations to support Caribbean small island developing States in particular.

The UN Ocean Conference 2025 takes place in the French Riviera city of Nice from 9 to 13 June.