Global Call on Governments to Commit Banning Offshore Fossil Fuel Exploration at UN Ocean Conference

CCB • April 4, 2025
  • More than 100 civil society organisations from around the world are calling on governments to immediately ban any exploration for oil and gas in the Ocean and to phase out offshore drilling for fossil fuels consistent with the Paris Agreement.
  • The letter comes at a crucial time, with growing recognition that a healthy ocean is crucial for the earth’s climate regulation.
  • The UN Ocean Conference in June 2025 presents a key opportunity to agree on critical conservation measures towards resilient and healthy marine ecosystems fit for climate protection.

This week, a coalition of more than 100 environmental organisations - including Coalition Clean Baltic (CCB) - from six continents has published an open letter calling on governments to include a commitment to ban the search for new oil and gas deposits in the seabed and phase out existing extraction in the final declaration of the Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3). The conference, scheduled for June 2025 in Nice, France, represents a critical opportunity to advance both ocean protection and climate action.


The diverse coalition – including marine conservation organisations, climate justice groups, and environmental NGOs from both the Global North and South – emphasises that continuing to explore for new hydrocarbon reserves is incompatible with meeting international climate goals and protecting marine ecosystems. 


The letter highlights how billions of dollars continue to be invested in seabed exploration for oil and gas, even within marine protected areas, despite scientific evidence pointing to the urgent need to halt new fossil fuel development. The search for new deposits involves seismic surveys using powerful airguns that produce some of the loudest human-made sounds in the ocean, causing widespread harm to marine life across entire food webs.


The joint NGO call is part of a broader effort to ensure that the UNOC3 becomes a turning point for both ocean protection and climate action.


Nicolas Entrup, Director of International Relations at OceanCare:

“If we truly want to protect the Ocean, we must end the destructive practice of oil and gas exploration in marine environments immediately. These activities cause some of the most intense noise in our seas, with severe and even deadly impacts on marine life – from the smallest plankton to large whales. Meanwhile, the Ocean has already absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat from carbon emissions, leading to rising sea levels, melting ice, and intensifying marine heatwaves. We cannot continue to exploit the very ecosystems that are buffering us from the worst impacts of climate change. The Third UN Ocean Conference must be a moment of action, not merely of empty phrases.”


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Notes to editors

The Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) will be held in Nice, France, in June 2025. Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, this high-level conference focuses on accelerating the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water). UNOC3 provides a crucial opportunity for governments to commit to concrete actions for ocean protection and address the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

CCB is looking for a Network Officer to join our team at the CCB International Secretariat

By CCB • April 9, 2025
Coalition Clean Baltic – CCB is a politically independent network, uniting 27 environmental non-profit organizations, as well as partners and experts from 11 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea region by encouraging new and constructive approaches and engaging people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. CCB Secretariat is based in Uppsala, Sweden.

Attacks on NGOs: 570+ Organisations Join Forces to Defend Civil Society

By CCB • April 7, 2025
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. Spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, this attack resorts to misleading arguments to fabricate a scandal. This portrayal has been amplified through the media, with notable exceptions of articles that attempted to clarify this misleading narrative. European CSOs are crucial to ensure the voices of citizens from different parts of Europe are heard in the EU institutions. Attacks against civil society are unfortunately not new and are exacerbated by this harmful idea. Furthermore, for-profit corporate lobbying is through the roof when compared to non-profit advocacy. In 2024, the 50 corporations with the largest lobbying budgets collectively spent nearly €200 million on lobbying the EU alone (66% more than in 2015). Comparing this to the funding environmental NGOs receive under the LIFE programme - €15.6 million annually of a €700 million yearly budget - truly shows the weakness of this ‘scandal’. This is why over 570 civil society organisations from 40 countries, including all EU Member States, have joined forces to call on those in power to act now and ensure that civil society is adequately funded and enabled to share our crucial perspectives . In this statement, we address: The source of this false narrative; Inaccurate claims made about how CSOs obtain and use funding; Why it’s paramount that CSOs receive sufficient funding; The need for civil dialogue to enable CSOs participation. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future; properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that. We call on decision-makers to ensure civil society organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Read the full statement here . -END Civil Society Europe (CSE) is the coordination of civil society organisations at EU level. Through its membership, CSE unites EU-level membership-based organisations that reach out to millions of people active in or supported by not-for-profits and civil society organisations across the EU. CSE was created by several civil society organisations as a follow-up to the European Year of Citizens and was established as an international not-for-profit under Belgian law in 2016. Since then, it has become the point of reference for EU institutions on transversal issues concerning civil dialogue and civic space.