Ban Ki Moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, has announced an initiative to protect oceans from pollution and over-fishing and to combat rising sea levels that threaten hundreds of millions of people.
Mr Ban said that the initiative, called the Oceans Compact, set out a strategic vision for the UN system to work more effectively to tackle the “precarious state” of the world’s seas.
In a speech to a conference marking the 30th anniversary of the opening for signature of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, he highlighted the “grave threat” from pollution, excessive fishing and global warming.
“Our oceans are heating and expanding,” he said. “Ocean acidification (from absorbed carbon emissions) is eating into the very basis of our ocean life; and…