On 12 August 2012, the UN chief announced an initiative to protect oceans from pollution and over-fishing and to combat rising sea levels which threaten hundreds of millions of the world’s people.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the “Oceans Compact” initiative sets out a strategic vision for the UN system to more effectively tackle the “precarious state” of the world’s seas.

Mr. Ban highlighted the “grave threat” from pollution, excessive fishing and global warming.

“Our oceans are heating and expanding,” he said in a speech to a conference marking the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“We risk irrevocable changes in processes that we barely comprehend, such as the great currents that affect weather patterns.

“Ocean acidification (from absorbed carbon emissions) is eating into the very basis of our ocean life; and sea level rise threatens to re-draw the global map at the expense of hundreds of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

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