Our planet is mainly ocean, our survival depends on the ocean, and our capability to thrive in the future will depend on a healthy ocean.

We are the stewards of the world's ocean, and it is our moral obligation and responsibility to pass on a healthy ocean to future generations and to ensure that ocean benefits can be enjoyed by humanity as a whole in an equitable manner.

The ocean is essential to life and well-being. We need blue carbon to help store CO2 emissions. We need blue economies to benefit from the enormous and diverse opportunities offered by the marine environment – from tourism, transportation, fishing and recreation, to communication, scientific research, as well as the commercial applications of scientific findings in health and industry. We need the ocean also to support peaceful exchanges between countries which share trans-boundary waters and resources, and as a basis for scientific cooperation and global trade.

In 2000, the world agreed on a set of visionary Millennium Development Goals, inspired by the lessons of the Declaration of Principles and Agenda 21, the Plan of Action of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Much progress has been achieved across the world, but this is insufficient and uneven. As countries accelerate towards the deadline of 2015, we must shape a new global sustainable development agenda, with the ocean at its heart.

The stakes are high and time is against us. The climate system has already been significantly altered by human activities. During Earth's history, the ocean has ensured the planet's resilience against climate variability – it is still assisting us today, but there is a mismatch between the pace of human-driven carbon emissions and the ability of the ocean to respond to alterations of the climate system. The alarm bell is ringing – we must take immediate steps to allow the world ocean to continue acting as a life-support system.