Mombasa ocean summit drives progress on marine protection, but threats persist
Why this matters: environmental and climate reporting with long-term consequences.
Governments at the annual oceans summit reaffirmed commitments to protect key marine ecosystems including the high seas and coral reefs, but observers said funding barriers and polluting projects are hampering progress on putting them into practice. At the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa this week, some 3,000 delegates – including government officials, scientists, business representatives and activists – gathered to discuss ocean protection and push for marine issues to move from the margins to the centre of global climate diplomacy. Campaigners said the overall picture was positive. Oceans are gaining more visibility in international climate discussions: from blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, to coastal adaptation, marine biodiversity, ocean finance and the High Seas Treaty. In this year’s preliminary conference report, the secretariat listed 320 existing ocean commitments worth $6.4 billion, with about $1.1 billion destined to address the climate crisis. Many of these pledges were already announced before the conference. But as momentum builds ahead of the COP31 climate summit in Türkiye, John Kerry, former US climate envoy and founder of the Our Ocean Conference, warned that the conversations and commitments on ocean protection will mean little if implementation continues to lag behind action. Jun 18, 2026 News West African nations target Eastern Atlantic for early high seas protection At the 11th Our Ocean Conference, African governments launched a bid to have the zone classified as one of the first high-seas protected areas Read more Jun 5, 2026 Nature Offshore oil and gas expansion threatens key marine ecosystems, report warns Sea life in countries like Kenya is under threat from planned new oil and gas production, analysis by environmental groups has found Read more May 6, 2026 Investigations How Shell is still benefiting from offloaded Niger Delta oil assets Shell used its exit from onshore operations i