The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Conference on Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (also known as the  BBNJ or High Seas Treaty), begins this week and runs to 18 March at the UN in New York.

The UK Prime Minister announced in February that the country will be joining the High Ambition Coalition on Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction. 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’.

Lord Goldsmith, Minister for the Pacific and the International Environment, made a statement to Parliament on the upcoming negotiations. In it he said:

‘The BBNJ Agreement will be an important step forward in ocean governance, building on existing obligations in UNCLOS to protect the marine environment. Formal negotiations on a draft agreement have been underway since 2018. This Conference, originally scheduled for March 2020, had to be postponed due to COVID restrictions. It will be a key moment for delegations to regroup in person to make progress. This will be challenging in the time available. In a lengthy draft text of more than 70 articles, with many square bracketed options, plus more than 400 pages of alternative text proposals from delegations, there are still a number of key points of divergence in positions.

The mandate for negotiations is set out in UN General Assembly Resolution 72/249 of 24 December 2017. The Resolution mandates the negotiations to address the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. The elements of the “package” to be negotiated are marine genetic resources, including questions on the sharing of benefits, area-based management tools, including marine protected areas (MPA), environmental impact assessments and capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology. The Resolution also reaffirms that the work of the Conference and the Agreement should be fully consistent with the provisions of UNCLOS and should not undermine the work of the existing ocean governance bodies. The Conference is the final round of negotiations envisaged in the Resolution.’

You can read the full statement from Lord Goldsmith here.

Businesses and NGOs have been calling for action for some time and it will be interesting to see how the Conference concludes. The conference is one of many slated to convene this year. For more information on the ‘High Seas’ Conference visit the website here.  For information on the fourth session in particular visit here.