The so-called Blue Zone, reserved to governments and accredited organizations, will be installed in Port Lympia in downtown Nice.  More than fifty vessels and boats are also expected to come and join the conference in Port Lympia, and more in surrounding areas.

In addition, the Green Zone, called La Baleine (the Whale) will be installed in Nice’s Palexpo, distant from the Blue Zone some fifteen minutes by tram, or a 25 minute walk. The plan is that The Whale includes a number of pavilions by different organizations, auditoria, and other spaces for agora and other meetings and consultations, as well as thematic and institutional spaces:

• 10 June: Day of the Mediterranean.
• 13 June: Adoption of the Nice Ocean Declaration and the Nice Ocean Action Plan.
• Concert in the football stadium.

The UN Ocean Conference will officially take place from 9 to 13 June 2025. However it will be preceded by a One Ocean Science Congress (Nice, 4-6 June), a Blue Economy and Finance Forum (Monaco, 7-8 June), an Ocean Rise and  Coastal Resilience Forum to address  cities’ and territories’ response to sea level rise and other coastal climate change impacts (Nice, 7 June), and a special day for and with Civil Society, including  the “peoples of the Sea” and “women of the Sea”  and a “Blue march”  across the city’s coast line (Nice, 8 June).

The backbone of the plenary of the UN Ocean Conference (9-13 June) will be structured as follows, in according to a UN General Assembly of 2nd July 2024:

• Fostering sustainable fisheries management including supporting small scale fishers.

• Conserving, sustainably managing and restoring marine and coastal ecosystems including deep-sea ecosystems.

• Promoting and supporting all forms of cooperation, especially at the regional and subregional level.

• Preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds, in particular, from land-based activities.

• Leveraging ocean, climate and biodiversity interlinkages.

• Advancing sustainable ocean-based economies, sustainable maritime transport and coastal community resilience leaving no one behind.

• Promoting the role of sustainable food from the ocean for poverty eradication and food security.

• Increasing ocean-related scientific cooperation, knowledge, capacity building, marine technology and education to strengthen the science-policy interface for ocean health.

• Enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in the UNCLOS

• Mobilizing finance for ocean actions in the support of SDG14.

The panels covering will each be chaired by two Heads of State or Government. The governments of Australia and Cape Verde have been designated to facilitate the process leading to the final declaration (the Nice Ocean Action Plan).

Based on the discussions and negotiations that will take place before and during the UN Ocean Conference, it is expected that the conference adopts the Nice Ocean Action Plan, ten years after the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2015.

The panels covering will each be chaired by two Heads of State or Government. Based on the discussions and negotiations that will take place before and during the UN Ocean Conference, the goal is the adoption of a Nice Ocean Action Plan at the end of the conference, ten years after the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2015.

The governments of Australia and Cape Verde have also been designated to facilitate a process leading to a final declaration, the Nice Ocean Action Declaration currently under negotiation at UN Headquarters. A zero draft has been issued at the end of 2024 with the aim of seeking consensus by May 2025.

The outcome of the UN Ocean Conference will reflect the common denominator of the governments participating, because decisions of all conferences convened by the UN General Assembly are adopted by consensus.

It is thus important that civil society mobilizes to demand ambitious and effective measures and commitments, in line with the Protection Principle, and reaches out to decision-makers and influencers.

Tuesday, 10 June has been designated as the Day of the Mediterranean, which  will be made up of 4 segments:

• A high-level meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of the Barcelona Convention and Mediterranean Action Planand to revitalize it.
• A Mediterranean Blue Economy event.
• A regional gathering of territories and municipalities.
• A Mediterranean Civil Society and Youth forum.

Organizations which have participated in past UN conferences can automatically receive accreditation to attend the Nice conference. Check here if your organization falls in that category. If so, you must pay attention to the deadline which will be announced soon by the UN Division of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) to nominate your representatives at the Nice conference.

Special Accreditation to participate in the Nice conference has been open through theUN DESA website until 13 December 2024 for other non-governmental organizations, civil society and youth organizations, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, local and regional authorities, academic institutions, the scientific community, the private sector, philanthropic organizations and other stakeholders whose work is relevant to the Conference but who are not in consultative status with ECOSOC or accredited to the previous United Nations Ocean Conferences.

The secretariat of the Conference is reviewing the relevance of the work of the applicant organizations including their background and involvement in the implementation and follow up of SDG 14. The President of the General Assembly will draw up the list of recommended organizations and submit it to Member States for their consideration on a non-objection basis.

If your NGO has missed the 13 December deadline, you may want to see if an accredited organization or delegation you partner with would like to incorporate you within their delegation. Otherwise, regardless of whether you are accredited or not you will be able to access the events in the green zone and other offsite events elsewhere in the city.

In addition, you can also sign up for the newsletter to receive updates from UN DESA: UN DESA Conference Registration.

UN DESA have published on their website guidelines and information on the procedure to apply for side events. 

Applications and deadlines for side events were published at the end of January 2025, as follows:

• On-site events, in the Blue Zone: form can be found here. Deadline to submit applications: 14 March 2025
• Off-site events, in another venue in Nice: form can be found here. Deadline to submit applications: 21 April 2025.
• Virtual events: form can be found here. Deadline to submit applications: 21 April 2025.

Please note:

• Priority will be given to events organized by UN Member States and those organized in partnership by several networks/organizations.
• All interested parties are strongly encouraged to partner with others to organize a side event.
• Please check the UNDESA website for the latest updates.
  For further information regarding side events, please contact unoc2025[at]un.org with [Side Events] in the subject.

Guidelines can be found here. 

We recommend that you sign up to the UN DESA newsletter as well as to the Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean LinkedIn page, to receive updates.

Like at past UN Ocean Conferences, a register of voluntary commitments for stakeholders has been open. You can check which voluntary commitments have already been submitted, and you can register your own(s), including those you are developing in partnership with other organizations, private sector or governments.

The French and Costa Rican co-presidency of the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 2025) to be held in Nice, France in June 2025, tasked two years ago the Ocean & Climate Platform and the Varda Group with facilitating civil society's participation and input. As part of this, Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean is an initiative supported by six partner organizations and coordinated by The Varda Group.

Making ocean protection the norm, rather than the exception. A paradigm shift that explicitly places the burden of proof on extractive or polluting industries, requiring them to demonstrate that their activities are safe for the ocean or that eMective mitigation and restoration measures are implemented.

Details are available in the e-book Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean, in the summary in the International Institute on Sustainable Development (IIDS), both published in November 2023 and in Advancing the Protection Principle, a paper published and presented in October 2024 at the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, Colombia.

Six partner organizations are supporting our activities: the Ocean & Climate Platform, TBA21-Academy, Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy, the Tara Ocean Foundation, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and MedPAN. The Oceanographic Institute Paul Ricard, from France and the Ocean Born Foundation have also provided contributions.

Absolutely. NGOs and civil society coalitions, corporate alliances and startups, academic institutions, etc. are encouraged to join the Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean movement. The only requirement is to explicitly adhere to the Protection Principle.

See: www.letsbenicetotheocean.org/movement. We are developing outreach activities for and with the members of the movement, individually and collectively.

By joining the conversation, submitting proposals, and participating in discussions, civil society organizations can influence global policy and push for an ambitious Nice Ocean Action Plan and Nice Ocean Action Declaration. Civil society plays a critical role in developing and amplifying calls for ocean protection.

Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean is a participatory and inclusive initiative. We want to inspire others to challenge the status quo and campaign for innovative actionable proposals, ensuring the transformative potential of the Nice Conference is fully realized.

In September 2023, in collaboration with the Varda Group, the Ocean & Climate Platform conducted a survey of the expectations of civil society organizations for the Third UN Ocean Conference. Following this, we released in June 2024 a summary of a wide array of proposals by NGOs and other organizations.

A full report compiling submissions received between February and May 2024 is available here.

Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean is primarily focused on engaging organisations, as their collective efforts can drive impactful action for the ocean at scale. However, individuals who are passionate about ocean protection can also support and amplify, as well as volunteering with organizations actively working for ocean conservation. You can also follow updates on the Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean website and LinkedIn page and share your thoughts on social media to help spread the message.

We hope to be soon in a position to provide an update to respond to this question, with information from the different institutions and organizations involved (United Nations, French Government, City and Region of Nice, NGOs, etc.).