The United Nations Conference on the High Seas, which ended on Friday 13 June in Nice (France), achieved a major breakthrough with a view to the High Seas Treaty coming into force at the beginning of 2026. On the other hand, progress on extending marine protected areas is considered by many to be insufficient.
This was the third United Nations conference on the oceans and the largest to date in terms of attendance, with 64 heads of state or government meeting on the Côte d’Azur, under the presidency of France and Costa Rica.
Acceleration on the high seas. The ratification of the High Seas Treaty by 50 countries, announced in Nice on Monday, was welcomed by all. It paves the way for the rapid entry into force of this international agreement. The first Conference of the Parties (COP) on the high seas could be held as early as autumn 2026, according to Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, France’s special envoy for the Nice conference. The treaty will come into force 120 days after the deposit of the 60th ratification. Mr Poivre d’Arvor pointed out that 70 countries will have ratified the treaty by 23 September, the date of the official ratification ceremony in New York. The treaty should then come into force in January 2026.
Marine protected areas. 14 countries have announced the creation of new marine protected areas (MPAs), increasing the protected share of the oceans from 8.4% to almost 11% following the Nice summit. The target of 30% marine protected areas by 2030 is still a long way off, although France says it is “working towards it”.
Some countries have banned bottom trawling. However, the French announcements disappointed the NGOs, with bottom trawling limited in just 4% of French waters.
Mr Poivre d’Arvor said that some of this bottom trawling would disappear in France. He mentioned 40 French ships in the Mediterranean (compared with 400 in Spain) and said that this practice would eventually disappear.
Mining. Many of the world’s leaders have toughened their stance against the United States’ decision to unilaterally begin mining polymetallic nodules in the international waters of the Pacific (see EUROPE 13656/8). However, this firm rhetoric failed to significantly broaden the coalition in favour of a moratorium on seabed mining, which went from 32 to just 37 countries out of the 169 member states of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which is responsible for drafting a mining code. “A mining code has to be approved unanimously and, with 37 countries, things will get blocked”, said Mr Poivre d’Arvor, ahead of the next meeting of the IAMF in July.
The IMO agreement on the decarbonisation of maritime transport will make it possible, from 2026, to set up a fund of €10 billion a year for island countries, to be paid into by shipping companies that do not comply with the decarbonisation curve, explained Mr Poivre d’Arvor, in response to questions about funding.
96 countries have signed the Nice appeal for an ambitious Plastics Treaty (see EUROPE 13657/5). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)