UN member states seemed to be approaching an agreement on Friday evening on the treaty to protect the high seas, a fragile and vital treasure that covers nearly half the planet.
After more than 15 years of informal and then formal discussions, the negotiators are coming to the end of two more weeks of talks in New York, the third “last” session in less than a year.
“I don’t think a solution is out of sight,” conference president Rena Lee told a short plenary session later in the day, calling on delegates to stock up on “snacks” to hold on until the expected finish line on the night of Friday to Saturday.
“We have the opportunity to get the deal done and we must not let it slip away,” she added, noting however that negotiations were continuing, particularly on the highly political issue of benefit sharing from marine resources. genetics.
Even if compromises are found on all the chapters still open, the treaty cannot be formally adopted during this session, she further explained.
But it can be “finalized”, without the possibility of reopening discussions “on the merits”, before formal adoption “at a later date” when it has been scrutinized by the legal services and translated into the six official languages ??of the EU. ‘UN.
Even without formal adoption, it would be “a major step”, Veronica Frank of Greenpeace told AFP.
The high seas begin where the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of states end, no more than 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coast, and are therefore not under the jurisdiction of any country.
Even though it represents more than 60% of the oceans and almost half of the surface of the planet, it has long been ignored in the environmental fight, in favor of coastal areas and emblematic species.
However, ocean ecosystems produce half of the oxygen we breathe, limit global warming by absorbing a large part of the CO2 emitted by human activities, and feed part of humanity.
But they are threatened by climate change, pollution of all kinds and overfishing.
Negotiations for the future treaty focused on several disputes: procedure for creating marine protected areas, method of implementing environmental impact studies for activities planned on the high seas, and above all sharing of potential benefits from resources genetic marines.
For many observers, this issue boils down to a matter of North-South equity. “Geopolitics”, comments Minna Epps, of the International Union for the Protection of Nature (IUCN).
Developing countries are indeed worried about not being fully party to the treaty due to a lack of financial resources; and fear being deprived of their share of the commercialization cake of potential miraculous molecules discovered in these international waters.
With an announcement seen as a gesture to build North-South trust, the European Union pledged, in New York, 40 million euros to facilitate the ratification of the treaty and its initial implementation.
Beyond that, she announced more than 800 million euros devoted to the protection of the oceans in general for 2023 during the “Our Ocean” conference which ended on Friday in Panama, where the United States put on the table 77 projects for the oceans valued at almost 6 billion dollars.
In total, Panamanian Foreign Minister Janaina Tewaney announced that “341 new commitments”, amounting to nearly 20 billion dollars, had been made at this conference to protect the seas.
According to several observers interviewed by AFP, resolving these financial issues, which are politically very sensitive, could unlock the rest.
In the event of agreement, it will remain to be seen whether the text will be sufficiently solid, with the compromises agreed, to make it possible to effectively protect the oceans.
At this stage, “the text is not perfect, but it opens a clear path towards the 30 by 30 objective,” said Veronica Frank, referring to the commitment made in December by all the governments of the world to protect 30% of the earth’s land and oceans by 2030.
An almost impossible challenge without including the high seas, of which only about 1% is protected today.
04/03/2023 03:32:09 – United Nations (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP