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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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.

COP30 brings ocean and water to the center of climate policy

By CCB • December 5, 2025
In Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference COP30 immediately set the bar high. In his opening speech, Brazilian President Lula da Silva stressed that climate change is no longer a "threat to the future", but a tragedy that the world is already experiencing here and now, and called on countries to accelerate actions rather than limit themselves to promises. However, as is often the case in COP meetings, the political reality turned out to be more complicated than ambitions. Negotiations were difficult: the countries could not agree on a clear and binding plan to phase out fossil fuels. It is important to note that the Global Action Plan has provided a platform for discussing the development of a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change. At the same time, COP30 has brought tangible progress in other areas: the countries agreed to triple the amount of adaptation funding for developing countries by 2035, strengthened the forest and ocean agenda, and expanded the range of practical initiatives under the Action Agenda . COP30 consolidated the trend: from "water at the center of the climate crisis" to a holistic ocean agenda closely related to energy, food, biodiversity and sustainable coastal development. From the COP29 Water Declaration to the COP30 Enhanced Ocean Water Program At COP29 in Baku, the Declaration on Water for Climate Action was adopted , with the aim to applying comprehensive approaches to combating the causes and consequences of climate change for water basins, emphasizing also the need to integrate water-related mitigation and adaptation measures into national climate policies, including Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). COP30 did not reverse this logic, but expanded it towards the ocean and coasts. Both processes "aquatic" and "oceanic" are moving in the same direction: integration of water, coasts and ocean into the climate plans of countries; development of nature-based solutions; strengthening transboundary management of water and marine systems; recognizing adaptation as an equal part of climate policy, rather than an "adjunct" to emissions reduction. Task Force on Oceans and the Blue NDC Challenge The international Task Force on Oceans , led by Brazil and France, was officially presented at the high-level ministerial meeting "From Ambition to Implementation: Delivering on Ocean Commitments" on 18 November, integrating oceans into a global mechanism to accelerate the incorporation of marine solutions into national climate plans. The Blue Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Challenge encourages countries to set ocean protection targets when updating their NDCs. The goal is to transition the Blue NDC Challenge into an Implementation Task Force. Members of the Blue NDC Challenge, currently 17 countries, can adopt a broad set of actions aimed at the protection and sustainable use of the oceans.These measures include the sustainable management, conservation, and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems, supported by tools such as marine spatial planning, integrated coastal zone management, and climate-aligned marine protected areas. Countries are also encouraged to support sustainable and climate-resilient fishing and aquaculture, ensuring ocean health and long-term food security. B razil has set a clear example: its updated NDC includes a separate chapter on the ocean and coastal zones. For the first time, the national climate plan (Plano Clima) until 2035 includes a thematic adaptation plan for these areas. Priorities include the completion of national Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) by 2030 and major programs for the conservation and restoration of mangroves and coral reefs (ProManguezal, ProCoral).

Pathway to Tox-Free Living: Policy and Action

By CCB • November 24, 2025
Leading scientists, consumer advocates and policymakers gathered on November, 18th in Brussels for the conference "From Evidence to Policy: Toward a Tox free Living Environment" . They warned that exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in homes and consumer products represents a silent but severe public health and economic crisis. New findings presented to over 65 participants by the EU Baltic Sea Interreg project NonHazCity3 , LIFE ChemBee and the ToxFree LIFE for All projects as well as revealed widespread contamination of European households by complex chemical mixtures of hormone system disrupting substances (so called endocrine disrupters – EDCs) that contribute to chronic disease and impose enormous health costs. According to the key note speaker Dr. Aleksandra Rutkowska, the home environment is a significant source of exposure to EDCs through indoor air, dust and daily contact with common products. Current research links such exposure to a shocking amount of lifestyle diseases including 22 cancer outcomes, 18 metabolic disorder outcomes and 17 cardiovascular disease outcomes. Scientists also stressed that the crisis spans generations. EDCs trigger epigenetic changes that not only affect today’s population but also future children and even grandchildren. Other effects include reproduction disorders. Over the last decade, 150 million babies were born preterm, and evidence shows that reducing the use of plastics by half could cut the risk of preterm birth by half as well.