The signatories of the Treaty to Protect the High Seas want to hold their first meeting in January 2027 at UN headquarters.
The member countries of the historic treaty to protect the high seas will propose to hold their first formal meeting (COP1) in January 2027 at the UN headquarters in New York. After consultation with the various Member States, « we will recommend to the Secretary-General that the first meeting of the COP be convened from January 11 to 22, 2027 at the UN headquarters, » said Janine Coye-Felson, co-chair of the preparatory commission for the implementation of this treaty officially entered into force at the beginning of the year.
This preparatory commission holds its last meeting in New York for two weeks to prepare the decisions to be taken during this first COP, such as certain operating rules or the place of the secretariat.
After years of waiting for ocean defenders, the treaty, now ratified by 85 countries and signed by 144, came into force, on paper, at the end of January. But most of the instruments it provides for will need specific decisions from successive COPs to come to life, especially future marine protected areas on the high seas.
The text, adopted in June 2023, aims to counteract the multiple threats to the oceans.
Only 1% of the high seas is protected
While marine ecosystems are threatened by climate change, pollution and overfishing, science has proven the importance of protecting all these oceans with an often microscopic biodiversity, which provide half of the oxygen we breathe and limit warming by absorbing a significant part of the CO2 emitted by human activities.
The high seas begins where the exclusive economic zones (EZEs) of the States stop, a maximum of 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the coast and is not under the jurisdiction of any State. Although it represents almost half of the planet and more than 60% of the oceans, it has long been ignored in the environmental struggle.
Today, only about 1% of the high seas is subject to conservation measures. But, in 2022, all the states of the planet committed themselves at COP15 on biodiversity to protect, by 2030, 30% of the planet’s land and oceans. To achieve this, the new treaty is essential.
source : Le monde
