The oceans will have to keep waiting for a treaty to protect them, after two weeks of negotiations ended this Friday at the UN without an agreement, although with the expectation that it can finally be closed soon.
(Colombia signed an environmental pact for the oceans).
Well into the night in New York, the negotiators gave up and decided that more time is needed to reach this international agreement which has been under discussion since 2018. For this reason, they chose to suspend the fifth and last round of negotiations – which ended on Friday – and resume it on a date yet to be determined.
This was announced by the president of the conference negotiating the treaty, Rena Lee, after several meetings in which positions were attempted at the last minute in search of an agreement.
According to Lee, today we are “closer than ever to the goal”, but a little more time is needed to complete the process.
The treaty negotiated by countries around the world seeks to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine areas located beyond national jurisdiction, the areas commonly known as the high seas. It is an instrument that environmentalists consider fundamental to guarantee the future of the oceans and that has been claimed for decades, but that continues to accumulate delays.
(Multinational companies accused of not stopping the plastic crisis).
The negotiations officially began in 2018 and the goal was to have a treaty by 2020, but those plans fell apart due to the covid-19 pandemic, which forced the entire process to be delayed.
Now, the goal was to have an agreement in 2022, something that is complicated after the failure of this round of negotiations, although it is not ruled out.
According to Greenpeace, if there is no treaty this year, it will be very difficult to meet the goal of protecting 30% of the ocean area by 2030a goal that many countries have set themselves and that many scientists consider the minimum necessary to allow marine ecosystems to recover from the pressure to which they are subjected.
Pollution, climate change and new technologies that open the door to mining at the bottom of the seas and more intensive fishing are, according to experts, the main threats to the high seas.
EFE
