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high seas treaty: UN's guterres warns of 'wild west'.....

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday told delegates at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France: "The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it."

The UN boss cited collapsing fish stocks, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, plastic pollution, destructive fishing and the quest for mineral riches at the ocean floor as key threats in his remarks.

The conference was organized to ratify a treaty that would give nations the right to establish protected marine areas in international waters.

Beyond providing sustenance and a habitat for local communities, sea creatures and organisms, oceansalso absorb roughly 30% the globe's CO2 emissions.

The High Seas Treaty, adopted in 2023, would allow countries to legally establish protection for roughly two-thirds of the world's oceans — where activities are largely unregulated today.

Currently, only 8% of the world's oceans have marine conservation designations, although it is estimated that only 1% overall can be considered truly protected.

Macron says High Seas Treaty a 'done deal'

To go into effect, the High Seas Treaty must ratified by at least 60 countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron told those gathered that 50 countries had ratified the treaty so farand another 15 had formally promised to, making it "a done deal."

France's foreign minister said he expects implementation to take place by the end of the year.

Macron also announced that France would partially restrict bottom-trawling — a destructive form of fishing — in half of the countries protected marine areas. But conservation groups blasted him for not going far enough to protect French waters.

Guterres: Mining could turn seabed into 'wild west'

The UN's Guterres began the conference by addressing a major threat facing the world's oceans — deep-sea mining.

Guterres warned of the dangers of letting the ocean floor "become the wild west."

The US, China and Russia, among others, are keen to exploit potential mineral wealth on and beneath the ocean floor.

US President Donald Trump has moved aggressively on this front, fast-tracking US exploration in international waters and threatening to take territorial control of Greenland to get its share of Arctic rare earths.

Macron is lobbying for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, calling it "an international necessity."

"I think it's madness to launch predatory economic action that will disrupt the deep seabed, disrupt biodiversity, destroy it and release irrecoverable carbon sinks," he said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva joined Macron in criticizing a "predatory race" among countries looking to extract critical minerals on the ocean floor.

No US delegation present at ocean conference

The US has also withdrawn from all international climate commitments and cut funding for climate and oceanographic projects under President Trump.

Commenting on the fact that the US had not sent a delegation to the conference, France's Macron, said: "It's not a surprise, we know the American administration's position on these issues."

"If they [the US] don't ratify it, they are not bound by it," said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance.

"Implementation will take years but it is critical that we start now," said Hubbard, adding, "we won't let the US' absence stop that from happening."

 Small island nations call out the big fish

Investment in ocean health totaled $10 billion (€8.8 billion) from 2015 to 2019. The UN estimates that investment needs to be $175 billion annually to meet conservation coals.

The UN has announced it will introduce a new scheme to mobilize new and diverse sources of capital to finance an attempt to restore ocean health by 2028.

Alongside political and business leaders, ocean experts, conservationists and activists, the Nice conference was also attended by representatives from numerous small island nations facing rising seas, marine trash and decimated fish stocks.

Although the conference will not produce any legally binding agreement, those engaged in its implementation are pushing ahead.

Samoa, for one, led by example this week, announcing the creation of nine marine parks protecting 30% of its waters.

As large nations haggle over the price of protecting the oceans, President Surangel Whipps Jr of the low-lying Pacific nation of Palau, called them out: "We say to you, if you are serious about protecting the ocean, prove it."

Edited by: Zac Crellin

https://www.dw.com/en/high-seas-treaty-uns-guterres-warns-of-wild-west/a-72848635

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

not for sale....

Deep seas, Greenland, Antarctica ‘not for sale’, Macron tells UN oceans summit  

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday opened the United Nations Oceans Conference in the French Riviera city of Nice with an urgent call for multilateral mobilisation to save the seas. The deep seas, Greenland and Antarctica are not for sale, the French president said, as he called for the ratification of the High Seas Treaty.

French President Emmanuel Macron opened the United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice on Monday with an urgent call for multilateral action to save the seas.

"The first answer is multilateralism," said Macron. “The deep sea is not for sale, neither is Greenland for sale, nor Antarctica," he added in a veiled response to US President Donald Trump's expansionist statements since he took office in January.

"While the Earth is warming, the ocean is boiling," said the French president, as he called for an "open partnership" in science and research to protect the world's oceans.

"The climate, like biodiversity, is not a matter of opinion; it's a matter of scientifically established facts," he added.

A High Seas Treaty will be ratified by a sufficient number of countries at the summit to enter into force, Macron confirmed, noting that 50 countries had submitted ratifications "in the past few hours" before the UN Ocean Conference officially opened.

READ MOREProtecting the ocean: What is the high seas treaty?

"In addition to the 50 ratifications already submitted here in the last few hours, 15 countries have formally committed to joining them," said Macron. "This means that the political agreement has been reached, which allows us to say that this High Seas Treaty will be properly implemented. So it's a done deal," he added, without specifying a timeline.

The treaty, signed in 2023, will enter into force 120 days after the 60th ratification. France initially wanted to obtain the  60 ratifications before the Nice conference began.

Around 60 heads of state and government are attending the third UN Ocean Conference, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei.

Moratorium on deep-sea mining 'a necessity'

Macron also called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, which was "a necessity", he maintained.

"I think it's madness to launch predatory economic action that will disrupt the deep seabed, disrupt biodiversity, destroy it ... The moratorium on deep seabed exploitation is an international necessity," he told the gathering in Nice, southeastern France.

Trump has brought urgency to the debate around deep-sea mining, moving to fast-track US exploration in international waters and sidestepping global efforts to regulate the nascent sector.

The International Seabed Authority, which has jurisdiction over the ocean floor outside national waters, is meeting in July to discuss a global mining code to regulate mining in the ocean depths.

Speaking at the conference after Macron, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world could not let the deep oceans "become the wild west" as nations negotiate contentious new rules for seabed mining.

Brazil's Lula on Monday warned against the threat of countries unilaterally exploiting the oceans through deep-sea mining, in a reference to US plans to exploit the deep seabed.

"Now we are seeing hanging over the ocean the threat of unilateralism. We cannot allow" what happened to international trade to happen to the sea, Lula said at the UN summit.

He called on the International Seabed Authority to act as Trump prepares to unilaterally authorise mineral exploitation in the Pacific Ocean.

Tackling plastics pollution

The appeals for unity come as nations tussle over a global plastics pollutiontreaty, and the US sidesteps international efforts to regulate deep-sea mining.

The summit comes as just 2.7 percent of the ocean is effectively protected from destructive extractive activities, according to the nonprofit Marine Conservation Institute. That's far below the target agreed under the “30x30” pledge to conserve 30 percent of land and sea by 2030. 

South Korea, France and the EU have championed the High Seas Treaty, but most large ocean nations have yet to ratify it, including the rest of the G20. 

Beyond new commitments, the conference aims to highlight the growing gap between marine protection declarations and real-world conservation.

France, the conference co-host, claims to have surpassed the 30 percenth target for marine protection. But environmental groups say only 3 percent of French waters are fully protected from harmful activities like bottom trawling and industrial fishing.

In 2024 alone, more than 100 bottom-trawling vessels were recorded spending over 17,000 hours fishing within France’s six marine nature parks, according to ocean advocacy group Oceana.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

https://www.france24.com/en/environment/20250609-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-macron-opens-un-ocean-summit-in-nice-to-tackle-threats

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.