UN member states are working against the clock to agree on a deal to protect the UN. oceans before the meetings are over, this Friday. According to the attendees of the summit, which has been held in New York since February 20, it is currently not possible to predict the outcome of the sessions as disagreements on key issues continue.
“Progress has been made over the past week, but there are still many issues to be resolved”Nathalie Rey of the High Seas Alliance, an alliance that includes around 40 environmental NGOs, told the AFP agency.
“We need to step up in the second week of meetings to make sure we get the deal. I remain optimistic and I think it’s possible.”
But other spokespersons are more pessimistic about the possibility of reaching an agreement before talks end this Friday.
“Negotiations are progressing at a snail’s pace, running in circles” Laura Meller of Greenpeace said in a statement.
Conference chair Rena Lee urged negotiators on Monday to be “flexible and creative”, acknowledging that many key issues remain unresolved.
“We have to look to the future, look for the best and see how we can be flexible, otherwise we will not be able to reach an agreement and this 20 years will be a failure and we will have no one to blame but ourselves,” he warned.
But the Jamaican representative said flexibility should not come at the expense of ambition.
The challenge of protecting the high seas
The high seas begin at the border of the countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones, which extend up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the coast. Therefore, they are not located under the jurisdiction of any country.
yes ok the high seas make up more than 60 percent of the world’s oceans and nearly half of the planet’s surfacehas long received less attention from coastal waters and some iconic species of global biodiversity.
An updated draft text published last weekend is still full of parenthetical items, and many options are still open. and some key issues that will determine the strength of the final agreement are expected to be determined.
For example, how to create new marine protected areas, which is a central part of the future agreement, is still controversial.
“When we finished in August (the previous round of negotiation), that was 95 percent good, but now we’re concerned that this has eased,” Minna Epps of the International Union for Conservation of Nature told AFP.
China blocks deal
Several observers told AFP that China is pressing for the future governing body of any future agreement to be determined by consensus rather than majority vote of protected areas.
Seems like, China is trying to de facto veto power, As Beijing has used for years by the Antarctic Marine Life Resources Conservation Commission (CCAMLR) to prevent the creation of other marine protected areas.
“China must urgently reconsider its role in these negotiations,” said Greenpeace representative Laura Meller.
Meller urged Beijing to demonstrate the same leadership it showed under the COP15 presidency in Montreal in December when governments around the world pledged to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030.
This goal is nearly impossible without including the high seas, which are currently only about one percent protected.
Another particularly controversial issue at these meetings is how to assess the environmental impact of activities such as offshore mining.
Likewise, the way in which the final profits from the harvesting of newly discovered marine materials are distributed, for example, by manufacturers of pharmaceutical, chemical or cosmetic products, distinguishes rich countries from the poor.
A negotiator told AFP that an agreement on this issue is “pretty close”. Observers say reaching agreement on this issue can help prevent other points of disagreement.
“But whatever concessions are made, we must have an agreement that changes the status quo,” said Andreas Hansen of The Nature Conservancy. Otherwise, it will not be effective in stopping and reversing the loss of biodiversity in the ocean.
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