Progress and frustration mark the UN’s third Ocean Conference

Delegates around the world gathered in Nice, France, last week to discuss a variety of oceanic priorities, including the implementation of a recently final “Treaty of the High Seach” to protect the two thirds of the oceans who are outside the counter.

It was the third United Nations conference in the United Nations, a high -level forum aimed at advancing in the UN target of the UN of “conserving and using the sustainable use of oceans.” This year’s coanfferions, France and Costa Rica, urged other countries to intensify marine conservation efforts in the light of oceanic overposition crises, from plastic pollution and oceanic acidification to the increase in sea level that endangers a small island. António Guterres, UN Secretary General, said in his opening comments that the oceans are “the last shared resort” and that they must promote multilateral cooperation.

If the conference was a success depends on who asked him. The most prominent result of the meeting was a burst of voluntary and rhetorical commitments made by countries to conserve marine resources. Some of the thesis, such as France’s plica to limit a destructive fishing child called background drag, were criticized as insufficient. France also promoted the conference as a kind of deadline to reach 60 ratifications of the high season treaty, a necessary threshold to enter into force, but this did not happen, which led to the disappointment between the Ocean defenders

On the other hand, experts said there were real signs of progress. Germany and the European Union promised hundreds of millions of dollars to marine conservation, for example, and 11 governments signed a new promise to safeguard the coral reefs. Almost 20 countries ratified the high seas treaty approximately a few days, raising the total of up to 50.

Angelique Pouponeau, the main ocean negotiator for the alliance of small island states, a negotiation block of 39 countries, said in a statement that the conference had been “a moment of progress and reflection.” The former Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry, who also served as a special envoy on the climate under the Biden administration, said “critical impulse to safeguard our planet.”

The largest approach to the UN Ocean Conference was the Treaty of the High Sevy, also known as the Agreement on Biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions. Adopted by the UN Member States in 2023 after more than 20 years of negotiations, the treaty aims to solve a long -standing problem in marine protection: how to safeguard parts of the ocean that are outside the exclusive nautical areas of the countries “, the coasts of the costs of the Swatesal Swatesal de Beatsaal. Its economic zones.

France had made a priority to reach 60 ratifications of the high seas treaty, either before or the duration of the third ocean conference; Doing it would begin a 120 -day regressive account for the agreement to enter into force. There are not enough signed countries, he thought that the conference seemed to accelerate the ratification process: in a special event on the first day of the conference, 18 countries announced its ratification, including several total total total total total total theories, Vanuatu, Vanuuatu, Vanuuatu Union, which has ratified it as a block). Each country has its own laws and processes to ratify treaties; After the ratification, it formally leaves the UN and accepts that they be bound by the terms of the relevant treaty.

The special envoy of France to the conversations, Olivier Poivre D’Arvor, wrote on LinkedIn who awaits the remaining ratifications of the next meeting of the UN General Assembly this September. That would still be quite fast, compared to other multilateral environmental agreements. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, for example, the main legal framework of the world to regulate maritime activities such as shipping and fishing, and to establish the exclusive economic zones of the countries, tok tok years to reach 60 ratifications. Only a few versions, such as the Paris Agreement to address global warming, were ratified faster.

Rebecca Hubbard, director of a coalition of non -profit organizations that advocate the high seas treaty called Alliance High Seas, said in a statement that the world was “at a surprising distance” of the 60th ratification. “The entry of the treaty in force could be activated in a matter or week,” he said.

Several experts that Grist spoke with this Marine Protected are essential to advance to the UN target to protect 30 percent of the land and water from the earth by 2030. Robert Blasiak, associate professor of sustainable oceanic administration in the Treaty of Stocktholm, countries would have to designate around 90 percent of their waters as protected areas of marine, an unlikely scenario. However, French Polynesia caused a dip at the Ocean conference by declaring all of its exclusive economic zone, all 1.9 million square miles, a protected marine area, which makes it the largest in the world.

Other statements and promises of the UN Ocean Conference linked the oceans with climate change, plastic pollution, economic inequality and erosion of public confidence in science. Daily Plenary Duration, many delegates delivered statements about the role of a healthy ocean in the mitigation of global heating absorb 90 percent of the excess heat generated by burning fossil fuel

In its climatic objectives under the Paris Agreement, for example, by protecting oceanic ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs. Angelika Lātūfuipeka Tukuʻaho, the princess of Tonga, asked that whales be recognized as legal persons, part of a broader movement to establish inherent rights to natural entities.

The leaders of many countries also reiterated the calls to a moratorium on deep water mining, including French president Emmanuel Macron, who called him “madness” to process with mineral extraction from the seabed in large part unexplored. Separately, almost 100 national representatives issued a statement reaffirming their commitment to elaborate an “ambitious” negotiations of treaty doors of a plastics that will resume this August. And a letter signed by more than 100 scientists, indigenous leaders and environmental defenders requested the adoption of an “principle of oceanic protection” that prioritizes conservation over “irresponsible search and without profit restrictions.”

A promise that was not well, was the promise of French president Emmanuel Macron to “limit” the background tracking, a type of commercial fishing that involves dragging a heavy network at the bottom of the ocean, lifting debris and releasing carbon dioxide in the process. The environmental groups criticized the plan to apply to only 4 percent of the French waters, mainly in places where the lower drag is not produced, according to the non -profit international ocean. “These ads are more symbolic than shocking,” said Group’s campaign director Nicolas Fournier, in a statement.

Other groups said the conference had placed enough emhasis on issues such as oil and gas extraction and the rights of fishermen. They noticed with caution the non -binding nature of the promises of many countries and urged world leaders to “turn promises into action.”

“Ultimately, this summit produced a mere drop in the cube of what we desperately need to protect the ocean: the lungs of our planet,” said Enric Sala, an national environmental environmentalist and national geographical explorer, in a statement.