UN adopts ‘historic’ high seas treaty

NEW YORK — The world’s first international treaty to protect the high seas was adopted at the United Nations, creating a landmark environmental accord designed to protect remote ecosystems vital to humanity.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed as a “historic achievement” the treaty that will establish a legal framework to extend swathes of environmental protections to international waters, which make up more than 60 per cent of the world’s oceans.

“The ocean is the lifeblood of our planet and today you have pumped new life and hope to give the ocean a fighting chance,” he told delegates.

Following more than 15 years of discussions, including four years of formal negotiations, UN member states finally agreed on the text for the treaty in March after a flurry of final, marathon talks.

“Countries must now ratify it as quickly as possible to bring it into force so that we can protect our ocean, build our resilience to climate change and safeguard the lives and livelihoods of billions of people,” said Rebecca Hubbard of the High Seas Alliance.

Scientists have increasingly come to realise the importance of oceans, which produce most of the oxygen we breathe, limit climate change by absorbing CO2, and host rich areas of biodiversity, often at the microscopic level.

But with so much of the world’s oceans lying outside of individual countries’ exclusive economic zones, and thus the jurisdiction of any single state, providing protection for the so-called “high seas” requires international co-operation.

The result is that they’ve been long ignored in many environmental fights, as the spotlight has been on coastal areas and a few emblematic species.

A key tool in the treaty will be the ability to create protected marine areas in international waters.

Currently, only about one per cent of the high seas are protected by any sort of conservation measures.

The treaty is seen as crucial to countries protecting 30 per cent of the world’s oceans and lands by 2030, as agreed by world governments in a separate historic accord reached in Montreal in December.

With it, “We are giving ourselves the means to achieve” the 30 per cent target, said the French Secretary of State for the Sea, Herve Berville.

He called for a “sprint” towards ratification so that the accord enters into force by the next UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France in June 2025.