(Bloomberg) — The US is only sending observers to a UN Ocean Conference on protecting the oceans that began Monday in France, part of the Trump administration’s broader retreat from multilateral institutions and the fight against climate change.

The administration objects to the conference’s focus on a UN goal centered around the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans and marine resources, the State Department said in a statement. President Donald Trump’s team has rejected the idea behind the Sustainable Development Goals, a list of aspirations established in 2015.

Implementing the oceans-related goal is “at odds” with the US position, the department said. Two members of the Presidential Environmental Advisory Task Force will attend as observers. Normally the US government would send scientists

Trump has sought to reverse the Biden administration’s policies to fight climate change. On his first day in office, the president withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and has since cut funding on many related programs.

UN Ocean Conference rejection

Earlier this year, a US representative to the UN Ocean Conference in March said Washington “rejects and denounces” the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and related SDGs, which outlines 17 goals aimed at addressing challenges around the globe.

“Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with US sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney, a State Department diplomat, told a General Assembly meeting in March.

Representatives from more than 50 nations are gathered in Nice this week for the oceans event, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentina’s Javier Milei. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed participants and delivered remarks at the opening of the conference Monday.

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