After 15 years of disagreement, failures and stalled formal and informal talks, there is finally a UN high seas treaty that will help to protect vast swathes of the planet’s oceans.
The legally binding agreement was reached after five rounds of protracted United Nations-led negotiations that ended in New York on Saturday, a day after the original deadline.
“The ship has reached the shore,” UN conference president Rena Lee announced after a marathon final day of talks between negotiators from more than 100 countries.
The latest round of negotiations, the third in a year, had looked as though they may end again without success.
Delegates worked through Friday night and into Saturday, arguing over sensitive political issues like how to share newly discovered resources between developed and developing nations.
In many ways the fault lines mirrored those at the COP27 UN climate change conference in Egypt late last year, where trust and solidarity between rich and poor countries frayed close to breaking point and threatened to derail the whole event.
Read more:
Sharks in decline due to climate change, but tuna population is ‘on path to recovery’
UN countries agree to create ‘historic’ treaty to fight plastic pollution
With this as the backdrop, getting an agreement represents a huge and potentially critical milestone in the fight against climate change.
The high seas, or the parts of the ocean that are not territorial waters, do not technically belong to anyone.
But they are colossal, making up 60% of the earth’s oceans and covering nearly half its surface.
Subscribe to ClimateCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Spreaker
Ocean ecosystems keep our planet in balance by producing nearly half of the earth’s oxygen and absorbing much of its carbon dioxide.
But they are under threat from pollution, exploitation and global warming.
If we are to fight climate change effectively, scientists say, they must be protected.
