UN Summit advances ocean protection, vows to defend seabed

There are four major threats to the ocean's immense ecosystem and they all have one and the same cause: human activities. © RFI

A global oceans summit wrapped up Friday with world leaders taking major steps toward marine protection and vowing a showdown when nations meet to negotiate rules for deep-sea mining next month.

But as a cacophony of ship foghorns sounded the close of the UN Ocean Conference in France, a lack of funding pledges and the total omission of fossil fuels disappointed some observers.