A landmark treaty to protect the high seas has reached a key threshold of 60 governments signing it into law, securing its entry into force as Morocco became the latest country to ratify it ahead of the UN General Assembly this coming week.
The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) pact, known as the High Seas Treaty, was first agreed in 2023 and is seen as a crucial instrument to achieve a global goal of protecting 30% of land and sea ecosystems by 2030, known as 30×30.
The treaty lays the ground for the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) in international waters, which cover two-thirds of the world’s oceans. Scientists say that MPAs could allow the ocean to recover its capacity for storing planet-heating carbon dioxide, and also serve as sanctuaries for threatened species.
The treaty also requires economic activities on the high seas – such as planned deep sea mining for transition minerals – to present environmental impact assessments.
Campaigners celebrated the treaty’s entry into force and described it as a “historic” moment for ocean protection. So far 143 states have signed the treaty and 60 have ratified it. Palau became the first nation to ratify it back in January 2024. Four countries – Sri Lanka, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sierra Leone and Morocco – ratified it this week.
“This historic moment is the culmination of years of dedication and global diplomacy by governments and stakeholders,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance, a coalition of campaign groups following the treaty process.
Hubbard added that the 60 ratifications are not the finish line but a starting block for the treaty to grow. At next week’s UN General Assembly in New York, heads of state are expected to present their progress on reducing carbon emissions and protecting biodiversity.
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Race against time
Currently, only around 1% of the high seas are under some kind of protection, with most of that area near the South Pole. Analysis by Greenpeace International suggests that to meet the 30×30 goal, countries would have to put under protection a total area bigger than Canada each year for the next five years.
“The era of exploitation and destruction must end, and the Global Ocean Treaty is the tool to make that happen. But we must not get complacent. Scientists are clear that we need to protect at least 30% of our ocean by 2030, and time is running out,” said Mads Christensen, executive director of Greenpeace International.
Officially the treaty will enter into force in 120 days. The first ocean conference of the parties (COP) is likely to take place in 2026. Signatories that have not ratified the the treaty by the first COP will not get a seat at the negotiating table.
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“Governments around the world must use this time now to ensure the first historic Ocean COP becomes a turning point, and start to develop plans for the first-ever sanctuaries under the treaty,” Christensen said.
Among the top industrial fishing countries that have the greatest impact on the high seas, only Korea and Spain have ratified the agreement so far. China has signed but not ratified it, while Japan and Taiwan have not signed the high seas treaty.
“The treaty’s true strength lies in universal participation. While we must celebrate this incredible progress, we urge all remaining nations to join this historic agreement and help us go from 60 to global ahead of the first COP,” Hubbard said.
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Treaty to protect deep ocean reaches key threshold for entry into force
Three countries have been named by the Paris Agreement’s compliance committee for failing to submit a nationally determined contribution (NDC) and repeatedly snubbing offers of help with their climate plans.
After months of internal debate over whether to identify serial non-responders, the Paris Agreement’s Implementation and Compliance Committee (PAICC) named the three countries which have failed to engage with it over their NDCs on Friday.
It named Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and North Korea in a footnote of its annual report, adding that it decided to name them “with a view to facilitating engagement”, adding that representatives of the three nations had been invited to its meeting in early 2027 “with the purpose of identifying any challenges and constraints”.
“The Committee noted the importance of Parties engaging with the Committee in a timely manner, while noting that some delays may be due to the national capabilities and circumstances of the Parties”, the report said.
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In July, PAICC said 12 countries had ignored its repeated attempts to discuss why they had not published an NDC as required every five years under the 2015 Paris accord.
Members of the committee had been divided over whether to name them, but at a September meeting decided to do so in their annual report to the annual climate COP summit.
By the time the report was published on Friday, only Congo, Senegal and North Korea “had not communicated an NDC or submitted a [Biennial Transparency Report] and had not yet responded to any of the Committee’s notifications, despite several reminders issued by the Committee in this regard”.
Rainforest and renewable energy ambitions
The silence from Congo and Senegal is notable because the former is home to much of the Congo Basin rainforest while the latter has sought billions of dollars in climate finance to support its renewable energy ambitions.
After Brazil, Congo has more rainforest than any country in the world. This forest, and the country’s peatlands, absorb huge amounts of greenhouse gas but are fast being lost to expanding farmland, charcoal production, logging and mining.
Senegal signed a Just Energy Transition Partnership with Canada and wealthy European nations in 2023, to help it meet its renewable energy targets under the-then government of Macky Sall. It was chair of the Least Developed Countries group between January 2022 and December 2023.
Tejas Rao, who is researching the PAICC as part of a doctoral thesis at Cambridge University, said the governments of the three countries should engage with the committee.
“Engagement costs these governments very little and the committee has shown it will listen,” he said.
“Silence leaves the committee with no basis to help, and it leaves the [governments] exposed to the narrative that they are simply disengaged,” he told Climate Home News.
Paris Agreement requirement
The 2015 Paris Agreement requires all parties to publish an NDC every five years outlining their emissions reduction targets, with each plan meant to be more ambitious than the country’s last NDC.
The latest set – the third round of plans, with new targets for 2035 – was due in February 2025. While most countries missed this deadline, all but around 30 – mostly small emitters but including Egypt, Vietnam and Argentina – have now submitted them.
Over the year, the PAICC – which is made up of government climate officials from developed and developing countries – has been communicating with governments that have not submitted NDCs and trying to overcome barriers to them doing so.
Some nations have cited exceptional circumstances as the reason for not submitting an NDC, a process that requires a significant amount of work in tracking emissions and consulting on how to curb them across the economy. For example, a letter from a Sudanese official to the PAICC, seen by Climate Home News, said that the country’s civil war had led to the suspension of its NDC preparation.
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The US and Iran are not signed up to the Paris Agreement and so do not have active NDCs, nor does Taiwan, which is not a UN member state.
Rao said that because the PAICC is “facilitative and non-punitive”, naming the countries “is meant to open a door, not close one – the invited consultation is the point”.
“In recent months, governments that explained their constraints, whether capacity, finance or domestic process, have been met with follow-up and support rather than sanction, and the number of silent governments has fallen sharply,” Rao said.
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Paris Agreement committee names three countries snubbing it over NDCs