Ten years ago, I stood in a crowded hallway in Paris, watching history unfold. The Paris Agreement had just been adopted and the room erupted. There were cheers, tears and applause. I remember the hallway buzzing with the smell of coffee, exhaustion and belief. It felt like a line had been drawn in the sand. The world had finally said yes to something bigger than its borders.
Now, we gather again. This time in Nice. And this time, the crisis rises from the deep.
The 2025 UN Ocean Conference could not have come at a more urgent moment. Ocean temperatures are at record highs. Over 84 per cent of coral reefs have experienced bleaching-level heat stress since January 2023. Marine biodiversity is vanishing. The ocean is absorbing more carbon and heat than ever before and its ability to protect us is wearing thin.
In the halls of Nice, urgency is not just spoken. It is in the way delegates lean forward. France’s President Macron has called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, warning that the world cannot afford to explore blindly. French Polynesia has proposed what could become the largest marine protected area on Earth, spanning five million square kilometres. Eighteen more countries have ratified the High Seas Treaty, bringing the total to 49, just eleven short of entry into force.
This treaty matters. It creates tools to protect biodiversity beyond borders, mandates environmental assessments before high seas exploitation and introduces a framework for fair access to marine genetic resources.
Even with the current shifting, some regions are still slow to move. The Arab world, with all its coasts and stories, has not yet found its full voice in this treaty. The truth is, some already have. Countries like Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Mauritania, Yemen, Palestine and Jordan have signed the treaty. Signing shows intent. It is a step towards responsibility, a way of saying we are willing to be part of something larger. But signing is only the beginning. For a treaty to hold weight, it must be woven into law. That means review, debate and coordination. It is careful work. So far, only Jordan has completed that step. The treaty remains open for signature until September 2025. Time is still with us, but it is not standing still. Each passing season pulls the shore a little further from where it used to be.
And in the Gulf, where the sea has always been more than scenery, that current feels personal.
In Oman, the ocean is our inheritance. It carried our merchants, fed our families and shaped our stories. It shaped me. I remember early mornings near the shore, where the air smelled of salt and fish and home. But those mornings have changed. The coral is fading. The fish are fewer. Storms feel closer, like something pressing at the edge of memory. It is not only the elders who notice. The next generation feels it too, not in theory, but in their bones.
This summit cannot drift into memory like the ones before it. It must leave something behind. Leadership that hears the science. Action that spans borders. The courage to place the ocean not at the edge of our decisions, but at the centre of them.
Paris was a commitment. Nice must be a mirror. For our region, with coastlines that have shaped civilisations and communities still bound to the sea, the question is not whether the tide is rising. It is whether we will rise with it and rise together.
Rumaitha al Busaidi
The writer is environmental strategist and advocate for sustainable development
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