After fifteen years of negotiations, the substantive discussions to reach an international treaty for the protection of the sea beyond national jurisdictions are now over. Once ratified by enough States, this historic text will allow, among other things, the creation of marine protected areas.
It covers half of the globe, but this surface, without being an area of lawlessness, belongs to everyone and no one at the same time. The high seas, which designates any maritime zone beyond 370 km from the coast of a country, now has its agreement. The end of a marathon of negotiations started in… 2006.
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And to arrive at this announcement, the teams of negotiators worked continuously this Saturday after a sleepless night and three weeks of talks, specifies our correspondent in New York Carrie Nooten. An outcome hailed by applause at UN headquarters and by this sentence from the President of the Conference, Rena Lee: ” The ship has reached the shore “. After more than fifteen years of discussions, including four years of formal negotiations, the third “last” session in New York was finally the right one, or almost. Delegates finalized the text with content now frozen in substance, but it will be formally adopted at a later date after it has been vetted by legal services and translated to be available in the six official UN languages.
BBNJ President Rena Lee: “The ship has reached the shore.”
The BBNJ Agreement is agreed. pic.twitter.com/28oIVpFaOt
—Duncan Currie (@Duncan_Currie) March 5, 2023
Long ignored in the environmental fight to the benefit of coastal areas and a few emblematic species, the high seas are the subject of growing desire for the resources they contain.
However, with the progress of science, the proof has been made of the considerable importance of protecting the ocean and the underwater life teeming with an often microscopic biodiversity. The big blue also provides half of the oxygen we breathe and represents the planet’s primary carbon sink: it limits global warming by absorbing a significant portion of the CO2 emitted by human activities.
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But the oceans are weakening, victims of these emissions (warming, acidification of the water, etc.), pollution of all kinds and overfishing.
The new treaty, when it comes into force after being formally adopted, signed and ratified by enough countries, will create marine protected areas in these international waters.
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Currently, only about 1% of the high seas is subject to conservation measures, and this emblematic tool is considered essential if we hope to protect 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030, as s all the governments of the planet are committed to it in December.
The treatise on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction also introduces the obligation to carry out environmental impact studies for activities planned on the high seas.
profit sharing
Finally, a highly sensitive chapter which crystallized tensions until the last minute, the principle of sharing the benefits of marine genetic resources collected on the high seas.
Developing countries which do not have the means to finance very expensive expeditions and research have fought not to be excluded from access to genetic marine resources and from the sharing of anticipated profits from the commercialization of these resources – which belong to no one – from whom pharmaceutical or cosmetic companies hope to derive miracle molecules.
As in other international forums, notably the climate negotiations, the debate ended up boiling down to a question of North-South equity, commented observers. With an announcement seen as a gesture to strengthen North-South confidence, the European Union pledged, in New York, 40 million euros to facilitate the ratification of the treaty and its initial implementation. Beyond that, it pledged to devote more than 800 million euros to the protection of the oceans in general for 2023 during the Our Ocean conference which ended on Friday in Panama.
In total, Panamanian Foreign Minister Janaina Tewaney announced that “341 new commitments”, amounting to nearly 20 billion dollars – including nearly 6 billion from the United States – had been made during this conference. to protect the seas.
(With AFP)