After 15 years of discussions, UN member states reached an agreement on Saturday to protect biodiversity and regulate the sharing of resources on the high seas.
“We have done something incredible, considerable, which will transform the effects of climate change”, declared Sunday March 5 on franceinfo Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, ocean and poles ambassador, special envoy of the President of the Republic for the United Nations Ocean Conference. UN member states agreed on Saturday on the first international treaty to protect the high seas, intended to counter threats to ecosystems vital to humanity.
franceinfo: Can we speak of a historic agreement?
Olivier Poivre d’Arvor: It is an agreement on half the surface of the globe. It’s 60% of the sea. The high seas are everything that is free of circulation, which can belong to everyone. There is no legal protection. For 15 years we have been discussing a text that will protect the sea, to ensure that everyone cannot take over fishing, mineral genetic resources, use them. It is an agreement that is all the more surprising given that we are in a very troubled geopolitical situation. I think the effects of climate change are there. There, we did something incredible, considerable, which will transform the question of carbon, the effects of climate change and rising sea levels. This will have far-reaching effects on our survival for centuries to come.
What exactly does the high seas include?
There are three parts to the sea. The one that is ours, each country has its exclusive zone and can do what it wants with it, it’s 370 kilometres. There is the bottom of the sea which belongs to everyone and then there is the water column, an immense mass of water which belongs to no one. It had not been treated and that is what we protected.
What are the commitments of this treaty?
It will be done in 2030 because to prepare a planning path for this considerable space, it takes time. The text exists, it was approved by consensus. The agreement is signed. It must be ratified by all the parliaments of the countries. This will be the case in 2025, when France organizes the United Nations conference on the ocean. We are going to be able to implement a whole system of marine protected areas with very strict rules that will mean that we cannot fish, travel, go and find marine genetic resources without having carried out environmental impact studies. We are going to regulate the food, the diet and the exploitation of the oceans.
Why did it take 15 years of negotiations?
The notion of common good is not easy to make everyone understand. The sea is the place of the confrontation of tomorrow and today. China becomes the world’s leading maritime power this year, ahead of the United States. There will be many clashes. We French, we created a coalition, a year ago, for the defense of the high seas. We were 27 countries who said that this agreement should be signed. During the negotiations, we convinced the Chinese to be with us, then the Americans, the African countries and by some miracle we got there.
What’s next ?
We are preparing an equivalent of the IPCC on the ocean within two years to see what is happening there, what we can and cannot do.