Moderator: Under Secretary Catherine Novelli

Guest Speakers:

• Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., President, Republic of Palau
• Heraldo Munoz, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chile
• Borge Brende, Foreign Minister, Norway
• Robert Dussey, Foreign Minister, Togo
• Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, World Bank

CATHERINE A. NOVELLI, UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE: Good morning everyone, and welcome back from your break. For those of you who are Twitter savvy, we hope that you will reach out during the conference to continue the conversation. The hashtags to follow the conference, I hope, are being shown on the screen now. I guess not, but there is a "#ourocean2014," which is probably the best one. Turning to our panel, one reason why we wanted to host this conference is to prominently highlight concrete solutions for the challenges threatening our ocean. Each of the participants on this panel has been a driver of tangible solutions, and each is interested in continuing the momentum we are creating here to chart a path forward, as Secretary Kerry has continually said, throughout the conference. So, our first speaker is Secretary Kerry, who will kick off this session of the conference. Mr. Secretary. (applause)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Thanks. (Applause.) Am I supposed to go to there or here? Anyway, I’m here. (Laughter.)

Well, hello again, everybody, and thank you again. We’re sort of coming to the end of this part of the road. We have a luncheon obviously with an important announcement, important participation by John Podesta, who many of you know was deeply involved, chief of staff for President Clinton and is now special senior advisor to President Obama on issues similar to the ones we’re talking about here today.

But I particularly want to thank the President of Palau Tommy Remengesau and Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz of Chile, Foreign Minister Borge Brende of Norway, Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, and the managing director of the World Bank Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Each of you has been very important interlocutors, very committed to this effort. And while we have a representative group of foreign ministers who are here, I will tell you of significant broad-based interest from foreign ministers around the world, as I have talked to them. And I believe, going forward, we’re going to have an increasingly valuable partnership growing among our international partners, which will be critical in terms of affecting the progress that we’re looking for, all of us here.

Over the past day and a half, some of the world’s very best and most knowledgeable scientists and most influential leaders in both the public and private sectors have been here telling us about inspiring efforts that are underway to address various challenges of our ocean, and importantly not just defining the challenges but laying out the solutions, the things we know we can do.

What’s interesting about the challenges we face, I might add – and is not just about the oceans – but so many of the challenges that are confounding the world today actually have pretty obvious solutions that are staring us in the face. It’s not as if we’re sitting around scratching our heads saying, “How do we solve the problem?” It’s really a question of, “How do we find the political will? How do we get people to move – to sometimes move back very vested, powerful interests that like the status quo because change means reinvesting or changing the way you do business, even though in the long run it will save everybody a lot of money and a lot of grief?”

It’s pretty obvious about where we are. The solution to climate change, which is a serious problem with respect to the oceans, as we have all seen, is very simple, actually. It’s called energy policy. Energy policy is the solution to climate change. And astoundingly, we know we have anything from zero-emissions energy production to at least 50 percent of carbon, of CO2 production from coal or fossil fuels, unmitigated fossil fuel without carbon sequestration or without scrubbers and so forth. So we’re looking at solutions. The irony of it all is that the energy market that is staring us in the face is a $6 trillion market with four to five billion users today, which will grow to nine billion users over the course of the next years. Just think about that. It’s the mother of all markets.

And what we need are the triggers that excite the investment and excite the marketplace itself to move. It’s happening in some places; we all see that – some solar breaking through, more and more windmills. I was flying over France the other day going to the Normandy celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the invasion, and you could see more and more windmills. You see them in the North Sea. You see them in Scandinavia. I mean, they’re growing. And you see them in Iowa. You see them in Minnesota. But not happening fast enough, not happening significantly enough. Solar thermal – and we can produce three times the electricity needs of the entire United States of America from a 100 square-mile area in the four corners of southeastern United States. But we don’t have a grid that will transmit all of that to one part of the country to the other.

So there’s not – there is nothing that we’re looking at that doesn’t have a solution – acidification, nitrate overload, dead zones. We have to change the politics. And that’s part of the mission that’s got to come out of here.

So today, I want to talk just about a couple of – very, very quickly, because each of us are going to sort of lay out some things we can do. But the summary of everything that we’re going to hear today is that we have to change the political will and start to make the decisions that put the money into enforcement, into science, into all the things that can actually save the oceans.

So I want to leave here today, as I said yesterday, with more than ideas, with concrete next steps. And I know we’re all going to have new commitments to talk about, so let me jump to that quickly.

First of all, President Obama this morning announced one way that we intend to better address the rampant, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and that is by issuing a presidential memorandum to ensure that all seafood sold in the United States is both sustainable and traceable, meaning customers will know exactly who caught it, where, and when. And I’m delighted to say that the person who helped put together this terrific forum, Cathy Novelli, our Under Secretary of State for these activities, is going to co-chair the task force that will be charged with making that goal a reality so that we follow through.

The United States is also committed to supporting sustainable fisheries through the international Port State Measures Agreement, which will help ensure that illegally harvested fish cannot enter into the global stream of commerce. And here in the U.S., Senators Murkowski and Whitehouse, the co-chairs of the Senate Ocean policy – Ocean Caucus, played a key role in shepherding that agreement through Congress. And you’re going to be hearing them speak shortly after this panel wraps up, and they’ll tell us a little more about this effort.

One thing I forgot to kind of pull together as I was talking about the $6 trillion market, just to underscore the possibilities of a $6 trillion market with four to five billion users has to be compared to the 1990s, certainly in America, where we saw this extraordinary economic growth take place. And what fueled that growth was the computer data transmission, personal computer and so forth technology market really.

My friends, compare. The market that created growth in every single quintile of American income earner in the 1990s – every quintile, from the bottom 20 percent of taxpayers to the top 20 percent – everybody saw their income go up. America got richer. We created more wealth in the 1990s than we created in the entire period of the Morgans, Pierponts, Fricks, Rockefellers, and so forth in the 1920s when we had no income tax. And guess what? The market that created that greater wealth was a $1 trillion market compared to 6, and one billion users compared to four to five.

So that’s the differential. The world is waiting for people to be put to work. We have extreme poverty; we have terrorism that comes out of it. We have any number of problems that could be cured by energy policy that makes sense, and at the same time we would solve this problem.

We also know that in reaching this political consensus public-private partnerships are going to be absolutely critical to supporting a healthy ocean. Because more often than not, it will take a public and private initiative together to be able to create the sort of framework within which we’re able to manage these choices.

As we heard yesterday, the State Department and /tone™, which is a communications company, have together developed a new mobile platform device called mFish. And we just saw it earlier today. I went through it with Leonardo DiCaprio, looking at the various displays that show the currents and show ways in which we can be helpful.

But this is going to help fishermen get the data on local fish markets – pricing, supply numbers, and so forth. And they can also get weather forecasts and other information that helps to make their fishing efforts much more efficient and their catches more lucrative. And as a result, it will help put something up to 15 percent of their costs back in their pocket, so the incomes of fishermen will be able to go up. They’ll report their information on their catches through mFish, and that will help us do a much better job of monitoring and managing fisheries.

Yesterday I underscored the importance of research and science and getting the ocean policy right. That is especially true with respect to acidification. We need to know exactly where something is happening, what is happening, how fast it’s happening before we can actually make a decision about how to slow it down or what to do.

Now obviously more research is going to require more support. That’s why yesterday I announced $640,000 in a grant from the U.S. Government to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Coordination Center on Acidification in Monaco. That money is part of nearly 2 million that the U.S. Department of State and Energy together will be contributing in order to support the IAEA’s ocean and marine projects.

On top of that, the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, will be contributing more than $9 million over the next three years to the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network, so it can better monitor acidification around the world. And these investments will directly improve our understanding of the ocean, which in turn will improve our ability to be able to protect it.

Now that is a return on investment, and I can certainly imagine that all of you would support that kind of basic return on investment. I hope others around the world will contribute in a similar manner. Now that’s just some of what we’re planning to do here in the United States. But as President Obama made clear this morning, we’re really just getting started. I’ve been in this job now for a little over a year. It took us a period of time to plan this, but I hope we build some momentum out of here, and we will have more to announce, I promise you, in the near future. And I know that others on the stage here have more to contribute, and so I will turn over to them.

Thank you, Cathy. (Applause.)

UNDER SECRETARY NOVELLI: I'd like to welcome the President of Palau, His Excellency Tommy Remengesau, Jr. President Remengesau is the eighth president of the Republic of Palau, and in 2007, Time Magazine named him one of the heroes of the environment for initiatives such as The Micronesian Challenge. Welcome to President Remengesau. (applause)

TOMMY E. REMENGESAU, JR., PRESIDENT, REPUBLIC OF PALAU: Ladies and gentlemen, if I may, let me refer to all of us as children of the sea, of the ocean, because life would certainly not be possible without the blessings and support of the ocean. The ocean really does not separate us. It connects us together. It is our ocean. Thank you, Secretary Kerry and the government of the United States, for highlighting the importance of the ocean to life itself and the sustainability of the mother earth. Mr. Secretary, you are indeed a strong advocate and an appreciated child of the ocean. To all of you fellow children of the ocean, thank you. Thank you, because we are all in this together. We believe in the truth of science, and we know that if we don't collectively do something about what is happening to our ocean, life on earth will be worse than today, and the oceans will never be the same again. Friends, just to clarify an important point today. We small island nations in the Pacific are not facing the threat of climate change, global warming, ocean acidification, sea level rise, pollution, overfishing and dwindling stocks of fish, and stressed marine habitat. No, no, no. We are living the dangers already. The dangers to the perils of the ocean are already upon us. Fellow children of the ocean, we are the window to what will eventually happen to the rest of the global community if nothing significant is done about it. And so, the question is, and has been appropriately asked, do we debate or do we actually do something to stem the flow of destruction?

Palau comes to the table with a call for more marine protected areas, not a one size fits all formula, but a call for all of us to put something, a share of the solution, on the table, so that at the end of the day there is a collective sum of the parts. That would be a good start. In this light, Palau will designate and create a marine sanctuary that will encompass Palau's entire exclusive economic zone, an area roughly the size of Texas--the great state of Texas--with over 600,000 square kilometers.

Friends, we are mindful of our food security concerns in our subsistence-based livelihood, as well as a growing tourism industry, so we will have a reformed, well-managed domestic fishing zone, including appropriate near-shore and off-shore rich fishing grounds. Outside of this small area, we will declare the rest of our territorial waters a fully protected marine sanctuary. (applause)

Ladies and gentlemen, please, please do not confuse our intent. We are not anti-fishing. We are pro-fishing, sustainably. I am a fisherman myself, and I share these stories with my friends abroad, that the most eligible bachelor on the island, the best bachelor, is the best fisherman, because he can provide for his families, especially on a diet of fish meal. But nowadays, with dwindling stocks of fish, with small sizes of catch, the good fisherman is the one with the plastic spear. The plastic spear. (laughter)

Seriously, folks, conservation and marine protected areas are not new to us. Our ancestors would have called for a "bul," a moratorium to ban fishing in certain segments of the reef, if they saw that fish stocks were decreasing. This would help sustain the population of other areas that were open to fishing. And now, scientific studies have shown that the spillover effect, whether it is within or outside the reef, does indeed work. Yes, even migratory pelagic fish do need a rest area, nursery, just like humans do on their long journey throughout the ocean. This can only benefit those who eventually catch these fish. The Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Saipan, Guam, and Palau have successfully launched the first challenge, the Micronesia Challenge, to preserve at least 30 percent of our near-shore and 20 percent of our terrestrial resources. Palau was the first to create a shark sanctuary within our waters, and it is working. Studies have shown that a live shark is worth much, much more than a dead shark, and the same goes for all marine species. In fact, UNESCO has designated our Southern Lagoon as a World Heritage site. So we're doing our share of preservation out there in the Pacific. Friends, marine protected areas do work, and should be enhanced. If we can partner to enforce, to augment revenues and promote sustainable best practices, to protect and respect high seas resources and territorial integrity, these partnerships would go a long way. The United States can be a stronger leader, and they are, and a partner in this regard. And the global community would be best served if the oceans became a stand-alone agenda in the next Millennium Development Goals at the United Nations. (applause) Children of the ocean, my dear friends, there are many ocean shoes to fill. All that we ask is that you see what best fits you, and wear them. This will ensure that the ocean, and the children of the ocean, can endure the long walk of life. I thank you so very much. (applause)

UNDER SECRETARY NOVELLI: Thank you Mr. President for that inspiring announcement. I am now delighted to welcome the Chilean Foreign Minister, Heraldo Muñoz. Minister Muñoz became the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2014. Prior to his appointment as Foreign Minister, he served as the UN Assistant Secretary General, as well as the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Program. Welcome, Foreign Minister Muñoz.

HERALDO MUÑOZ, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, CHILE: Thank you very much. Secretary Kerry, Excellencies, colleagues, I thank very much the invitation to this important conference, for Chile, as well as for Latin America and the Caribbean and for the whole world. Discussing oceanic matters and promoting sustainable fisheries is absolutely fundamental for a country such as Chile, as sustainable development is a priority of the program of President Michelle Bachelet. We think that the current diagnosis set by size is very clear. Our Pacific Ocean is threatened, and we need to make stronger efforts to protect it at the global, regional and national level. In that context, Chile has played a role in recent times, and in fact, we developed an important experience in oceanic affairs since the launching of the Santiago Declaration of 1952, which itself constituted a milestone for the establishment of the economic exclusive zones, under the UN Law of the Sea Convention. In this context, allow me to propose, because this conference, under the leadership of John Kerry, has been so important, in fact, has forced us to review some of the issues that we hadn't tackled in our own country. So I'd like to propose the following. Commitments have been made, and have been made in this panel, so I'd like to propose that we hold a follow-up meeting on the commitments to be announced here today in Chile. We are willing to host a conference next year, in Valparaíso, our main port, on a date to be confirmed, so that we can check on the progresses, on the commitments, made here. This proposal should be considered as a commitment in itself. We hope to see you in Valparaíso next year. (applause)

Now as regards to the further announcements, let me first announce the following. Chile will access the United Nations New York Agreement of 1995 on straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks, the UN fish stocks agreement. That is the first announcement. We have initiated the internal consultations, led by my ministry, with other ministries, with the private sector, with industrial fishermen, with local fishermen. And we have all agreed that it's time that we adhere to this agreement. We feel that the proceedings in Congress should be completed during 2014 or early 2015, so that Congress could ratify, but we will sign. We have played a very relevant role in the negotiation leading to this agreement, but we were unable to sign it because there was the idea, or the perception, that it could debilitate our rights as a coastal state recognized by the UN Law of the Sea Convention, which we ratified in 1997.

But this has been overtaken by fact. First, by the implementation of the New York Agreement itself, and particularly by the adoption and entry into force of the convention establishing the Regional Fisheries Management Organization of the High Seas of the South Pacific, governing fisheries. So I think it is high time that we do this, and we were stimulated by this conference because John called us to think about commitments. We met. We created a working group and the outcome has been this first announcement. Second, Chile will put forward a new national policy to prevent, deter, and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. This is a global problem, a multi-million dollar industry, as we know, and we will implement this policy to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing. To this end, we have established our guidelines and implementation phases, starting the second half of this year, and going into the mid and long-term 2015-2016. This is a policy issue, involving different actors and stakeholders. We have the support of various ministries and concerned groups, economic groups such as the industrial and the artisanal fisheries, as well as civil society in our country. We have to combat illegal fishing more efficiently, particularly because we see this type of activity near our jurisdictional waters, including our oceanic islands, Easter Island, Rapa Nui for us, and Juan Fernández, as well as areas that constitute sensitive grounds for the jack mackerel fishery, in waters adjacent to - offshore off the island of Chiloé in Southern Chile, for example. So this new policy, I think, will take care of this situation, particularly of these oceanic islands, and it should become a powerful political message, as well as a comprehensive package of actions to protect our pristine islands, such as the Desventuradas, San Félix and San Ambrosio, Juan Fernandez and finally the well-known Easter Island, that we know as Rapa Nui, the indigenous name. We feel, in conclusion, that this new policy should be an updated tool to combat illegal fishing, focusing on the various connections of the high seas and domestic ports. We feel that we are making a strong and historic step by coming to this conference. We thank the leadership of John's, and of the U.S. Government, as well as my colleagues, and we feel that now we should advance to the conservation and sustainable use of our oceans. I think that present and future generations will thank us. Thank you. (applause)

UNDER SECRETARY NOVELLI: I'd now like to welcome the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Børge Brende. Prior to his appointment, Foreign Minister Brende was twice the managing director of the World Economic Forum. In between his two stints in Davos, he was the secretary general of the Norwegian Red Cross, where he personally took part in the Red Cross team, assisting after the 2011 earthquake in Haiti. He has also served as minister of the environment. Welcome to Foreign Minister Brende. (applause)

BØRGE BRENDE, FOREIGN MINISTER, NORWAY: Dear friends of our ocean. Thank you Secretary Kerry. Thank you John, for hosting this historic conference. And thank you for your extraordinary leadership and friendship. As a nation of seafarers and fishermen, Norwegians have lived off the ocean, and in close contact with the ocean, throughout history. We have reaped its benefits and weathered its storms. This is true in many parts of the world as well. Three billion people get almost 20 percent of their intake of animal protein from the oceans. Healthy oceans are key to a healthy future. The oceans are facing many challenges, as we have heard yesterday and today. A third of the world's fish stocks are overfished or depleted. Marine litter kills millions of sea birds every year. And ocean acidification is putting entire marine ecosystems at risk. We need clean and productive oceans to safeguard our existence. The better we take care of the ocean, the better the ocean can help us meet our needs. First, a few words about sustainable fisheries. As mentioned by Secretary Kerry, the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures was recently passed by the U.S. Senate. No others must follow. This is potentially one of the most effective measures against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Only ten countries have ratified so far. All fishing nations must follow suit as soon as possible. Joint action works. Norway and Russia have proved this in the management of our shared fish stocks. The Barents and the Norwegian Seas are now home to the world's largest cod stock. I'm pleased to announce that Norway will allocate more than $150 million (U.S.) to promote sustainable fisheries development and management abroad, including the building of a third research vessel to train fisheries experts and managers from all over the world to do a job also in the developing countries. (applause)

Another challenge highlightened by this conference is marine litter. Ninety-five percent of Norwegian sea birds have plastic in their stomachs, and it takes 450 years for nature to dissolve a plastic bottle thrown into the sea, 450 years. Marine litter is a global problem that calls for global solutions. I hope that the very first meeting in United Nations Environment Assembly, taking place already next week, can provide a new drive for our common efforts to protect the environment. Norway will do its part by allocating up to $1 million next week for a study on measures to combat marine plastic waste and micro-plastics. Let's walk the talk. (applause)

Finally, there is a global-scale problem of ocean acidification. The only way to fight this is through a reduction in the global level of CO2 emissions. It is vital that climate change summit in Paris next year is successful. Norway is committed to the process and to achieving an ambitious outcome, as we work towards a two degree target and a low carbon society. It is time to stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. We have to change course. (applause) Recognizing that actions speak louder than words, Norway has increased our budget for climate change mitigation significantly over the past years. Next year, Norway will allocate more than $1 billion to climate change mitigation and adaptation assistance abroad, including what will be a substantial contribution to the Green Climate Fund. (applause) We are pleased to be hosting the fund's first research mobilization meeting in Oslo on the 30th of June. Friends of our ocean, we depend...the new sustainable development goals, as already mentioned, must take into account the state of oceans, ecosystems and biological diversity. We must set ambitious targets towards 2030. We depend on the ecosystems of the world for our survival. We need to ensure that the oceans of the world are managed responsibly. This conference is an important step in this direction. Thank you. (applause)

UNDER SECRETARY NOVELLI: Thank you, Minister, for that very impressive and inspiring talk. I'm delighted to welcome the Togolese Foreign Minister, Robert Dussey. Foreign Minister Dussey joined the Togo Government cabinet recently, in the aftermath of the July parliamentary elections. He has been diplomatic advisor to the Togolese head of state since 2005. Welcome Foreign Minister Dussey. (applause)

ROBERT DUSSEY, FOREIGN MINISTER, TOGO: Mr. Secretary Kerry, thank you for providing me the opportunity to express the view of one small state from west African continent in this forum. We are discussing since yesterday about the acidification of oceans, the maritime pollution, and the fisheries and marine resources. About the last thing, I'd like to tell you Togo is committed to exercising greater control over this essential resource, and thus my government has acquired two additional deep water porthole craft to permit our navy to better police the entirety of our exclusive economic zone, and enforce accessing commercial fishing regulation. Regionally, we are committed to finalizing the ECOWAS--ECOWAS is Economic Community of West African States--Zone E Maritime Security Agreement with Ghana, Benin and Nigeria, including the comment dealing with a common approach to the regulation of fishing. Togo is also committed, by 2016, to follow the example of neighboring coastal states that have taken concrete action to adhere to the agreement on port state measures to prevent, deter, and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. In closing, I would like to mention two final issue, one particularly to Togo, and the second critical to all of us together here, coastal erosion. Coastal erosion is a major threat to the coast of our country, as its aware, where coastal overdevelopment of barrier island and shore lanes and the destruction of mangroves have occurred. Togo is actively seeking measures to halt this destructive erosion. Looking further ahead, my government is dismayed by projection of rising sea level driven by global climate change. This process, a major threat to a small littoral country with a shallow flood plain leading inland, and in the long-term it will propose a threat to our country with dense coastal population and large cities located near the ocean. We think, only by working together, we will be able to reverse this rising tide. Thank you for your invitation. (applause)

UNDER SECRETARY NOVELLI: Thank you Mr. Minister. I am now pleased to welcome the World Bank managing director and chief operating officer, Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2010, she served as Indonesia's minister of finance, and is credited with navigating one of the largest countries in southeast Asia through the global economic crisis. She is also one of 12 commissioners on the Global Oceans Commission. Ms. Indrawati. (applause)

SRI MULYANI INDRAWATI, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, WORLD BANK: Thank you Cathy, and thank you Secretary Kerry, for the opportunity to speak at this very important summit. Your leadership, as well as the United States, in discussing global ocean health is most welcome. I bring greeting from World Bank Group president, Jim Yong Kim, who would have liked to have been here today. As the managing director of the World Bank, and a member of the Global Ocean Commission, I'm often asked why the bank works on ocean. It is a question that many of us have been asked, especially since the launch in 2012 of the Global Partnership for Oceans, which we host. The answer is very, very simple. As a development institution concerned with reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity, as well as a former finance minister in Indonesia. I saw the map over there was Indonesia before. I think they change every second. An island country with more than 17,000 island, and more than 60 percent of geographic area is ocean, we cannot, in this case, we cannot ignore, in which the two-third of the planet, which is similar to Indonesia, that is covered by ocean, or in this case, more than 60 percent. And the hundred of million of people who depend on it for food, as well as livelihood. Healthy ocean provide job for at least 350 million people, many of whom live in developing countries. And fisheries alone employ over 58 million people, 90 percent of whom work in small-scale fisheries. At the World Bank, we work with 54 coastal and island country, for which a major proportion of their territory is ocean. For these countries, the ocean sustains life, livelihood, and culture, and is the mainstay of their economies. But now, climate change has become a fundamental threat to the ocean and to all of us. The ocean, as previously mentioned by all speaker, are now warmer and more acidic and they've been for millions of years, and it is almost certain that ecosystems, such as coral reef will not survive a four degree warmer world. Warmer ocean will mean many fish stock will either disappear or relocate to cooler water thousand of kilometers away, raising major food security issue. The Global Ocean Commission will release a report on, From Declining to Recovery, a Package for Global Ocean in New York on June 24.

At the World Bank Group, we support $6.4 billion of investment in the ocean space. Over $1 billion of these investments help reform fishery to ensure small-scale fishers that have the access they need, to their fish resources for job and food security. We also support government to realize the best and most sustainable return from this important natural capital. We are fully committed to the ocean agenda through our operation across the world. In the next few weeks, we will take to the board $10 million global environmental facility World Bank Group investment that will improve management of valuable fishery like tuna and other highly migratory fish stock in four areas in developing countries. We are also working with 150 partners, through the Global Partnership for Oceans, or GPO, to help countries get the funding and expertise they need to restore their ocean to health and productivity. Our diverse partners come from business, governments, multilaterals, research, philanthropy, and civil society. And I want to take this opportunity to thank the Government of Norway. Minister Brende mentioned - he didn't mention because over time, but I would like to announce and duly express thank you and USAID, for their generous support for the Global Partnership Ocean and its design phase. I would like also to thank United States Government for becoming the first donors to the GPO Multi-Donor Trust Fund, with a contribution through USAID, $1.5 million. (applause) Thank you.

Thank you, Secretary Kerry for your support, and to our colleague at the USAID, NOAA, as well as U.S. EPA, who play a very important role in guiding and building this partnership with us. U.S. leadership is vital, and we’ll continue to look to you, especially, Secretary Kerry, for your powerful voice of support for health ocean, and for the fight against climate change. Before closing, I would like to encourage everyone to take time to meet Paula Caballero, who is here today from the World Bank. She is our World Bank Group new senior director for environment and natural resource management, and she will guiding the World Bank ocean work, including overseeing the GPO. There is a lot of work, but we must, in this case will be very powerful if we will work together. You can be confident that we, as the World Bank Group, will work and committed to this ocean in our work here present, as well in the long run. Thank you very much.

UNDER SECRETARY NOVELLI: Thank you, Madam Director General, and thank you for standing in at the absolute last moment, due to a scheduling conflict with the president of the World Bank.