The UN summit to better protect the oceans ended on Saturday without concrete results. In New York, over the past two weeks, 167 countries and the European Union have negotiated an addition to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, dating from 1982, which provides that about 1 percent of the world’s oceans are protected. It was the fifth summit in a short time that failed. The aim was to protect a total of 30 percent of the oceans by 2030, but the negotiating countries did not agree on the conditions under which this should happen.
The talks focused on, among other things, establishing protected areas in the oceans, preventing damage from human activities such as fishing and deep-sea mining, and assisting poor countries in countering the harmful effects of the worrisome state of the oceans. oceans. Janine Felson, UN ambassador to Belize, Central America, said the people of her country “are directly dependent on the health of the ocean for livelihoods.”
Buffer against warming
It is widely recognized that protecting the oceans is necessary. On the one hand, for biodiversity, since marine life forms the beginning of many food chains. On the other hand, as a buffer against global warming: oceans absorb a large part of the CO₂ produced by humans.
However, the countries are not succeeding in reaching binding agreements together. Among other things, fishing, (financial) support for vulnerable countries and what should be done with the Arctic waters were stumbling blocks. The oceans are largely in a legal vacuum. Two-thirds of all the water on Earth is outside the exclusive economic zones, which end at 200 nautical miles (more than 370 kilometers) offshore.
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‘treated recklessly’
“Because the oceans don’t belong to anyone, they have been treated recklessly, with no one to be held accountable,” said Marco Lambertini, international director of the World Wildlife Fund last week. at the start of the negotiations.
Environmental organization Greenpeace blamed of the failed negotiations with the richer countries that “hadn’t done their homework” and were willing to compromise “too late”, jeopardizing other progress in the talks. Laura Meller, who leads Greenpeace’s ocean protection campaign, pointed the finger at the EU, the United States and Russia. The latter, Meller said, was unwilling to negotiate because “it was trying to reach compromises on other issues with the EU and other states.”
It is not yet clear when the talks will continue. In principle, that is next year, unless it is decided to convene an emergency UN meeting before the end of 2022.
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