The conference on the oceans closed with the Lisbon declaration adopted by consensus
The UN conference on the oceans, organized jointly by Portugal and Kenya, ended this Friday in Lisbon.
AFP - MIGUEL RIOPA
Text by: Simon Rozé Follow
9 mins
More fragile than ever, the oceans were at the center of a UN conference in Lisbon which ended on Friday July 1.
An opportunity to maintain momentum as several decisive events will take place between now and the end of the year.
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From our special correspondent in Lisbon,
“
We are facing a state of emergency of the oceans.
It was with these words that Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, opened the conference dedicated to them.
After New York in 2017, this is only the second time that the oceans, which nevertheless cover 71% of the surface of the globe, have been at the center of a dedicated event.
Another sign of the relative lack of interest that was granted to them until then, the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG-14) dedicated to them is one of the least funded among the 17 targets set by the United Nations for 2030. "
At the time of their implementation, I was one of the ambassadors to push for the implementation of SDG-14
", recalls Peter Thomson, UN special envoy for the oceans.
“
It was not to everyone's taste to have a sustainable development goal dedicated to the oceans and their problems.
If you take the ten largest countries in the world, almost half didn't want it.
They didn't see the point.
»
However,
the ocean is bad
.
It is warming up, acidifying, its biodiversity is declining and the water level is rising.
It was only the gradual realization of its role in climate regulation, however, that made many realize that it deserved some time.
The oceans indeed capture a quarter of the CO2 emitted, more than 90% of the excess heat and produce half of the planet's oxygen.
However, the machine is going out of order and if action is not taken, the consequences will be terrible for billions of human beings.
Things are therefore changing: "
There is now a very broad consensus on the fact that the ocean is very much in danger, that it is essential to us, and that we must therefore quickly protect it
", explains Olivier Poivre d'Arvor. , French ambassador for the poles and maritime issues.
Implementation of roadmaps
This is how thousands of people traveled to Lisbon for this conference organized jointly by Portugal and Kenya.
On the program, no binding treaty, but discussions and negotiations to move forward on the many ongoing negotiations.
“
Things are falling into place
,” explains Peter Thomson.
“
There was the Nairobi conference at the beginning of the year, and a treaty against plastic pollution is in preparation.
After twenty years of negotiations, the Ministerial Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has finally decided to ban unsustainable fishing subsidies.
»
The diplomat thus considers that the machine is launched and that it is now necessary to maintain the dynamic, the “momentum” in UN language: “
In Lisbon, we are putting in place the roadmaps and the funding that goes with it.
This will be used in August in New York for the negotiation of a high seas treaty. This will launch the COP27 in November in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
Finally, it will be useful for the COP15 devoted to biodiversity, in Montreal in December.
»
The ambition to create a law of the high seas
Many texts, touching on subjects as diverse as plastic pollution, biodiversity, fishing or the conservation of marine areas, are currently being negotiated or drafted.
There is in particular the "Coalition for High Ambition" which was launched jointly by France and Costa Rica during the
One Planet Summit
in January 2021. On this date, 102 states have joined, promising to protect 30% of their marine and terrestrial areas by 2030.
Among the most important is also the one aiming to create a law of the high seas. These international zones are only regulated by the Montego Bay Convention, signed in 1982, and this only concerns the surface but not the seabed. , nor the water column.
For the United Nations, it is therefore essential to equip itself with binding regulatory tools, because no rules apply today.
This is the subject of this treatise, nicknamed BBNJ.
If the discussions on such a subject are eminently complex, they are moving forward, believes Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, confident of the possibility of finding a consensus on the subject.
There is, however, the risk that this agreement will be made at a minimum: “
This is a treaty that concerns biodiversity on half of our planet, and it does not even talk about fishing!
“, chokes Guillermo Antonion Crespo, researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Center, and who intervenes as an expert in the discussions on BBNJ.
“
Yet it is one of, if not the main, cause of biodiversity loss.
We are therefore far from the mark.
»
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To read: Aquaculture, one of the solutions to fight against overfishing
The worrying state of the oceans recognized by the 193 Member States of the United Nations
And it is all the difficulty of these negotiations which relate to international territories, not belonging to any country: "
The world of the ocean has only found its rules for 40 years with Montego Bay
", says Olivier Poivre d'Arvor .
“
All the subjects, decarbonization, plastic, fishing, that requires regulations, and it's a bit long, yes.
We need leaders.
»
The leaders, precisely, met for the last time in Lisbon this Friday to formally adopt the joint declaration at the end of the last plenary session.
At the call of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, no objection, the "
Lisbon Declaration
" is adopted by consensus.
The text is not binding, it affirms the recognition of the 193 Member States of the United Nations of the worrying state of the oceans and their desire to urgently endeavor to resolve them.
The States also claim to “
deeply regret their collective failure
” which led to this situation.
“The ocean is life.
It's simple.
Without a clean ocean, full of life, we have no future”.
—@FCousteau, Ocean Advocate, calls on future generations to protect the planet at the Oceans Conference.
#Let's take action.
https://t.co/E3ZAtn3FO1 pic.twitter.com/e0Y28b3wG3
— United Nations (UN) (@ONU_fr) June 30, 2022
Seabed mining: a delicate subject
While the scope of the subjects raised by this conference and this declaration is wide, others are emerging and will also give rise to long and difficult negotiations.
Of these, seabed mining is one of the most sensitive.
Still unthinkable a few years ago, it is becoming technically feasible and the resources at the bottom of the sea are attracting covetousness.
Cobalt, copper, manganese, many see it as an opportunity, especially since these are resources presented as useful for the energy transition, in particular for the construction of batteries.
If the seabed is still preserved, these appetites worry about the damage they could cause: "
If the industry continues, it will have harmful effects on carbon storage, food security and even the survival of our communities
", declared on the first day of the Lisbon Surrangel Whipps conference although the subject is not on the official program.
The President of the Palau Islands then launched, with other Pacific island countries, an alliance to demand a moratorium on these practices.
At the podium, he warned as follows: “
You know, a few years ago, the urgency was to ban deep-sea trawling.
How is it possible in a sane mind to imagine going to mine there?
Without even understanding the consequences?
»
Indeed, these practices can potentially greatly disrupt marine ecosystems: vibrations, light, noise, discharges, so many risks that are still very poorly studied.
However, the International Seabed Authority (AIFM) received four permit applications last year, which it must examine by the summer of 2023, failing which the agreement will be tacit.
It is difficult today to know the content of the discussions that are held there, but the demand for a moratorium launched by Surrangel Whipps has not had a knock-on effect, and many countries prefer not to cut themselves off definitely of this potential source of wealth.
Rimicaris exoculata shrimp aggregate at a hydrothermal site.
Seemingly inert and useless, these areas of mineral deposits several hundreds or thousands of meters under water, in reality contain fragile ecosystems whose functioning is still unknown.
© Ifremer
A remarkable visit by the French President
Emmanuel Macron, however, surprised his world during his visit to Lisbon.
The French president is indeed one of the few to have moved and to deliver a speech from the podium.
But it was during a side event, in an informal discussion, that he declared that he believed that it was necessary to "
develop a legal framework to put a stop to deep-sea bottom mining and not to authorize new activities that would endanger ecosystems
”.
A statement that he had obviously not expected, but probably prompted by his discussion with Sylvia Earle, living legend of oceanography.
The former scientific director of NOAA, the American authority on the atmosphere and the oceans, is a fierce opponent of the mining of the seabed.
On this subject, the discussion has therefore only just begun.
Decarbonization of air and maritime transport, development of “zero emission” cars, strengthening of the carbon market, support for households, fight against imported deforestation: our mobilization must not waver for a moment.
pic.twitter.com/gwgnUgVAvx
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 30, 2022
Other deadlines are fast approaching
For the others, the deadlines are approaching: in August in New York for the treaty on the high seas;
in November in Sharm-el-Sheikh for the COP27 on the climate;
and finally in December in Montreal for COP15 biodiversity.
For the latter, the ambition is in particular to have the 193 member countries of the UN adopt the principle of “high ambition” by preserving
30% of their land and sea territories by 2030
.
In 2024, it is the treaty banning single-use plastics, the principle of which was agreed in Nairobi this spring, which must be presented.
Finally, in 2025, France has offered to co-organize with Costa Rica the next UN conference on the oceans.
An appointment that Paris intends to be as founding as the COP21 on climate ten years ago: "
We must set such ambitious objectives there for biodiversity and particularly the oceans
", declared Emmanuel Macron at the Lisbon platform.
►
To listen
: Oceans, the state of emergency
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