Pacific Island leaders speak at a press conference at the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS
By Naureen Hossain
NICE, France, Jun 11 2025 (IPS)
“There is no climate action without ocean action,” President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands told reporters, as she and other representatives of Pacific island states reiterated that countries must honor their climate action agreements.
“The ocean is bearing the brunt of our failure to address climate change and transition away from fossil fuels.”
Heine remarked that countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) must include how they will transition toward renewable energy sources in line with the 1.5 degree limit under the Paris Agreement.
President Surangel Whipps Jr. of Palau remarked that protecting the oceans requires countries to deliver on 1.5-aligned NDCs. He called on all countries, including major emitters from the G20 to deliver on them by September this year. “We need to adapt to shield our oceans from further harm. And that means, plain and simple, money—and money that we can use,” said Whipps Jr.
On the second day of the UN Ocean Conference, leaders and representatives from Pacific island states spoke to reporters following the Pacific-France Summit with President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders sat down with Macron to discuss the role that France could play in supporting climate resilience in the Pacific islands. They hoped that he would be an advocate for the Pacific island states and climate action within the European Union (EU), the G20 and the G7. Heine acknowledged that their meeting was not a “formal negotiating venue.” Rather, it was an opportunity to share concerns from the Pacific island states.
Whipps Jr. said that he invited Macron to invest in the Blue Pacific Prosperity Initiative and Pacific Resilience Fund. “The gap between what we need and what we have is growing dangerously wide,” said Whipps Jr. Macron was said to have committed to investing in climate financing in the region, as Whipps stressed that financing should reach the communities that would benefit from it the most without it taking months or even years to reach them.
“In the Pacific, our security depends on climate action,” said Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology and Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management, Vanuatu. “Without climate action, we face a very dangerous future.”
Venues such as the Ocean Conference provide opportunities for underrepresented communities and smaller countries to bring global attention to their challenges with the hope of effecting forward momentum, even as the process can be slow-moving.
“A lot of these changes that happen at the International level, when they do happen, are a result of these coalitions of the willing,” said Regenvanu, pointing to how nearly 50 countries have ratified the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) and that 37 countries have issued a moratorium on seabed mining.
“It’s the way you get to change—building support.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
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By Melek Zahine
BORDEAUX, France, Jun 11 2025 (IPS)
During President Trump’s tour of Gulf monarchies last month, he mentioned Gaza only two times. The first time was in Doha, when he expressed his desire to make Gaza a “freedom zone.” Gaza’s 2.1 million residents, nearly half of whom are children, would like that, too.
Just as the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in violation of the Geneva Convention have the right to immediate and unconditional freedom, Gazans also have the right to live free of the inhumane and illegal collective punishment they’ve been forced to endure for more than 600 days.
Melek Zahine
They would like freedom from the brutal bombardment, starvation, forced displacement, siege, and blockade of Gaza. They would also like the freedom to safely collect food and basic humanitarian supplies from the UN and other legitimate and experienced aid providers, the freedom to return to their communities to search for and bury their dead with dignity, and the freedom to rebuild Gaza even if it takes a generation.The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Dresden, Stalingrad, and Le Havre, were free to rebuild their cities. Why should this freedom be denied to Gazans?
When President Trump mentioned Gaza for the second time during his Gulf tour, he was in Abu Dhabi, where he briefly acknowledged the humanitarian crisis. He said, “We’re looking at Gaza. A lot of people are starving.”
The world now knows that President Trump’s words were nothing more than a virtue-signaling smoke screen. He wasn’t actually seeing the scale of the human suffering in Gaza, which the United States helped create.
Instead, he was talking about the so-called Gaza “Humanitarian Foundation,” a cynical and deadly tool designed by Israeli and U.S. officials to replace an established, functioning, independent, and credible international aid system in order to accelerate the ethnic cleansing and annexation of Gaza.
Since its launch ten days after Trump made his comments in Abu Dhabi, the G.H.F. has delivered more death than food and proven itself to be anything but humanitarian.
It’s just another lethal weapon in Israel’s vast Western-subsidized war arsenal and a way to appease Israel’s patrons in the U.S. Congress. How, after all, can “Hamas tunnels” and fighters hide beneath the emaciated, dying, and dead bodies of Gaza’s starved children?
Aftermath of a 6 May Israeli airstrike on an UNRWA school turned-shelter in Gaza where dozens of people were reportedly killed, including women and children. Credit: UNRWA
President Trump had a real chance to prove that his concerns for Gaza and his persistent claims of being a peacemaker were genuine during the 4 June U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire and full, unhindered humanitarian access.
Like President Biden before him, President Trump instructed his Acting U.N. Ambassador to cast the lone, shameful vote against a resolution meant to prevent the further loss of life in Gaza, including for the remaining Israeli hostages whose families have been pleading for a lasting ceasefire every day since November 2023.
This U.N. resolution wasn’t a political call for sanctions or an arms embargo against Israel. Nor was it a call to recognize the State of Palestine. It was simply a call for humanitarian action in order to get life-saving aid into Gaza at scale and to get the hostages out of captivity.
The political wisdom and courage to vote in favor of this ceasefire was the bare minimum President Trump and his administration could have offered. More importantly, it’s what a majority of American citizens have wanted for some time now, including those who voted for President Trump.
According to a March 2025 AP-NORC poll, 60% of Republicans now believe that “it’s essential” for the U.S. to “facilitate a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” and in May, a Data for Progress poll showed that 76% of Americans across political lines are in favor of an immediate ceasefire and would like to see the U.S. do its part to de-escalate the crisis in Gaza.
By voting against the ceasefire and providing numerous misleading reasons for doing so afterward, President Trump ignored the views of a majority of Americans towards the increasingly desperate situation faced by Gaza’s besieged and starving population.
The urgent question now is whether the 14 sovereign states that voted in favor of the resolution will quickly honor their votes with meaningful action. There’s so much that can be done, from pausing trade talks and relations to arms embargoes and sanctions, but the following three measures will send a strong, immediate message that there’s serious determination behind the condemnation.
European, U.K., Turkish, and regional Arab States should join forces to provide a no-fly zone over Gaza. This action is the fastest way to stop Israel from prosecuting its deadly daily air strikes. I witnessed how it saved lives and paved the way to peace when NATO enforced a No Fly Zone over Bosnia for a thousand days between 1993 and 1995.
A no-fly zone over Gaza will help calm tensions in the region and build a political and humanitarian space for more seasoned mediators to ensure the safe release of the Israeli hostages and for legitimate humanitarian aid actors to resume operations through the Karem Shalom, Erez, and other crossings into Gaza.
Simultaneously, the deployment of French, Turkish, British, and Russian naval hospital ships already in or near the Mediterranean should sail to Gaza immediately, especially towards the North of the strip where no fully functioning hospitals remain and where people are dying for lack of basic medical supplies and infrastructure.
This action will help save lives and lift the burden from Gaza’s devastated healthcare system until it’s given a chance to recover. Furthermore, the governments that voted in favor of the resolution must pressure Israel to facilitate immediate access for international journalists into Gaza.
If a small sailboat in the Mediterranean and the thousands of ordinary citizens from 32 countries presently marching towards Gaza through Egypt can try to break Israel’s unlawful siege and blockade, surely the most powerful governments and navies from the Eurasian continent can do their part.
IPS UN Bureau
Excerpt:
Melek Zahine is an international humanitarian affairs and disaster response expert.