The world dumps the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute, the United Nations heard today at the start of a two-day meeting to prepare for this June’s Ocean Conference that will aim to help safeguard the planet’s oceans and help them recover from human-induced problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen leaders from across Governments, international organizations, civil society, the private sector, and the scientific and academic communities, gather together in New York, from 5-9 June for The Ocean Conference<\/a>, we will be witness to a turning point,\u201d the President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, told<\/a> the participants, who also included the Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and the Minister for Fisheries of Fiji, the countries co-hosting the conference.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will witness the point in history when humanity truly began the process of reversing the cycle of decline that accumulated human activity has brought upon the Ocean,\u201d Mr. Thomson added.<\/p>\n The high-level Oceans Conference aims to get everyone involved in conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs<\/a>), specifically Goal 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n The UN has called for voluntary commitments to implement Goal 14 and today launched an online commitment registry<\/a> which has its first three commitments \u2013 the Swedish Government, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP<\/a>), and Peaceboat, a non-governmental organization. The site will be up through the end of the Conference, which starts on World Environment Day, marked annually on 5 June, and includes 8 June, celebrated as World Oceans Day.<\/p>\n The voluntary commitments \u201cunderscore the urgency for action and for solutions,\u201d said<\/a> Under-Secretary-General Wu Hongbo, who heads the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs and serves as the Secretary-General of the Conference.<\/p>\n Addressing participants today, Mr. Wu said preparations for the Conference are \u201con track.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe health of our oceans and seas, and the future wellbeing of our planet and our society, demand no less,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In addition to pollution, The Oceans Conference and SDG 14 address overfishing, as well as acidification and increasing global water temperatures linked to climate change.<\/p>\n