Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on the UK's role in global ocean conservation.

The UK's vision is to achieve a clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse ocean. As set out in the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan, we will work domestically and internationally to deliver this vision and our commitments under UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life Below Water, the objective of which is to conserve and sustainably use the ocean, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. At the UN General Assembly in September, the Prime Minister called for urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity as part of global efforts to tackle the drivers and impact of climate change. Action on climate change is linked to ocean conservation – tackling acidification, deoxygenation, temperature and sea level rise. The UK's nomination, in partnership with Italy, to host COP26 in 2020 in Glasgow is expected to be formally confirmed at COP25 (the "Blue COP") in Santiago in December. We will seek to build on the outcomes from COP25 and ensure that the ocean remains high on the climate agenda.