The Prime Minister has announced that the UK will be joining the High Ambition Coalition on Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction. The PM gave a video message at the One Ocean Summit, held in France from  9 to 11 February 2022.

The UK joined the 27 EU Member States, Australia, Egypt, Norway and others in committing ‘at the highest political level, to achieve an ambitious outcome of the ongoing negotiations on a Treaty of the High Seas (“the implementing agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction”), under the auspices of the United Nations.’

The coalition stated that they ‘urge States to reach agreement and conclude in 2022, year of the 40th anniversary of the UNCLOS, the international legally binding treaty under the UNCLOS for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (“BBNJ Treaty”). We also recognize the contribution of such BBNJ Treaty to the protection by 2030 of at least 30% of the Ocean and seas through an ecologically representative, well connected network including of highly, and fully protected marine areas and area-based management tools.’

Campaigners welcomed the announcement of the High Ambition Coalition and called for ‘concrete action and a new treaty that will provide comprehensive protections to high seas marine life’.  The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (aka, BBNJ or High Seas Treaty), which was postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be convened from 7 to 18 March 2022 at the UN in New York.

As trailed here last week, there were a raft of announcements emanating from the conference, many of which set the stage for potential agreements later in the year, with campaigners highlighting the lack of explanation on implementation. France said it had exceeded the goal of classifying 30% of the land and marine spaces under its jurisdiction as protected areas after the creation of the world’s second largest marine protected area, around its southern and Antarctic lands. The US said it would support opening talks at the UN for an international deal on plastic pollution, and India backed France in launching a global initiative against single use plastics.

There were also announcements on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, “blue carbon” and shipping. French officials said the summit marked the starting point of a series of key international meetings focused on the oceans. Along with the High Seas summit in New York in March,  of particular significance will be the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly from February 28 to March 2, and the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on 27 June to 1 July 2022.