UNITED NATIONS: Member states of the UN were still hard at work even on Saturday morning after they spent a tiring and sleepless night with the efforts to finalize a long-awaited agreement to safeguard the high seas, a fragile and crucial treasure that covers almost half the planet.
After over 15 years of formal and informal talks, negotiators have entered the final phase of two new weeks of debate, the third “final” round in less than a year.
However, as of early Saturday morning in New York, participant members were still struggling over the highly political issue of advantage-sharing for research taken from marine genetic resources accumulated on the high seas.
“Still, we have a few issues to clarify, but it is making progress, and members are showing flexibility,” Rena Lee, the conference chair, remarked around 1:30 am (0630 GMT).
UN on the protection of high seas
UN crucial agreement to protect high seas
On Friday night, Rena Lee said, “we still have a window of opportunity to strike the deal, and we must not let this opportunity slip through our hands.”
Even if settlements are found on all the remaining issues, the treaty cannot be formally finalized at this session, Lee maintained on Friday.
However, it could be adopted without the possibility of reopening discussions on basic sections before a formal adoption at a subsequent date, she further explained.
Even without adoption on Friday, “It’s still a massive step,” remarked Veronica Frank of Greenpeace.
The high seas started at the border of the countries exclusive economic zones, which stretched up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the coastlines. Therefore they fall under the jurisdiction of no country.
While the high seas consist of over 60 percent of the world’s oceans and almost half surface of the planet.
Almost one percent of the high seas are currently protected.
Ocean ecosystems create about half the oxygen humans breathe and check global warming by absorbing much of the carbon dioxide released by human actions.
But they are threatened by climate change, overfishing, and pollution.
For many, any agreement hinges on equal sharing between the poorer global South and the rich global North and Developing nations without the means to afford expensive research.
An effort was seen as an attempt to build trust between poor and rich countries, the EU (European Union) committed 40 million euros ($42 million) in New York to facilitate the ratification of the treaty and its timely implementation.
Meanwhile, delegates to a global conference in Panama to save oceans of the world also pledged $19 billion this week, comprising $6 billion from the US and $860 million from the European Union for marine conservation.
