Blitz India Business
NEW DELHI: Global responses to SDG 14 have evolved from fragmented local clean-ups to binding international treaties and multi-billion-dollar financing mechanisms.
The high seas treaty: After nearly two decades of gruelling negotiations, the UN Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) treaty was finalised to protect marine life in international waters. It establishes a legal framework to create vast marine protected areas on the high seas, where nearly half of the planet’s surface lies previously unprotected.
Ending harmful subsidies: The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) landmark agreement to prohibit harmful fisheries subsidies – which historically pumped billions of dollars into over-capacity fleets driving illegal and unregulated fishing – marked a major policy triumph for SDG target 14.6.
Rise of blue finance: International financial institutions and philanthropic groups are increasingly deploying ‘Blue Bonds’ – debt instruments where proceeds are explicitly earmarked for sustainable ocean and coastal projects, bridging the massive funding deficit that has historically plagued marine conservation.