Oceans and seas 2024-

UNDP Ocean Promise

High Seas Treaty
One Ocean – One Planet – One Treaty
The High Seas Alliance (HSA) sometimes uses the term “High Seas Treaty“ as a short-hand for the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). HSA acknowledges that the scope of the BBNJ Agreement encompasses all Areas beyond national jurisdiction, including the seafloor and water column. This choice of wording is intended to ease understanding for broad audiences and does not convey a prioritization among the components or principles of the BBNJ Agreement.

7 November
How the climate crisis threatens the Panama Canal – and the country’s future
The region has spent over a year in drought, the third worst since the canal opened in 1914, forcing the authorities to restrict the number and size of vessels crossing the continent, creating today’s waterborne traffic jam.
Since 1997, three significant droughts have threatened the canal’s operations, says Steven Paton of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, who monitors tropical climate and oceans. He confirms growing worries about the sustainability of water levels in the Panama Canal given changing climate patterns.

4 June
As seas rise, the relocation of Caribbean islanders has begun
The government-managed movement of 300 families from the island of Gardi Sugdub is a test case for “planned retreat” in Latin America
(The Economist) On June 3rd the Panamanian government began relocating 300 families from Gardi Sugdub, a tiny coral island about a kilometre off the northern coast of Panama to new, government-built housing on the mainland. A changing climate and rising seas are slowly swamping the island, and 37 other inhabited islands nearby, most of which lie less than one metre above sea level. That level is rising by 3.4 millimetres every year. Storms are becoming heavier and more frequent. Steve Paton of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City says the islands will be uninhabitable by the end of the century.

16 April
Seychelles becomes the first African nation to ratify the High Seas Treaty
The High Seas Alliance congratulated Seychelles today for becoming the first African nation to officially ratify the new High Seas Treaty at the United Nations (UN) headquarters1, thereby joining Palau, Chile and Belize as the leading countries in the Race for Ratification2.
“We applaud Seychelles for demonstrating global leadership in protecting biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction by formally ratifying the High Seas Treaty. Although the High Seas sustains the greatest wealth of life on Earth, these vast international waters are the least protected areas of our planet. By picking up the pace in the Race for Ratification, Seychelles has taken the world a step closer to a new era of ocean protections,” said Rebecca Hubbard, Director of the High Seas Alliance.

4 March
Ottawa celebrates signing a watershed ocean treaty
Canada has signed a landmark global ocean agreement on the first anniversary of the historic document’s creation.
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Diane Lebouthillier signed the High Seas Treaty at the United Nations in New York on Monday.
The accord is the result of decades of work and provides a legally binding blueprint to create marine-protected areas (MPAs) in international waters in a bid to conserve marine life and the fair, sustainable use of ocean resources.
The agreement represents one of the first co-ordinated international efforts to preserve the high seas, which make up two-thirds of the ocean but are inadequately governed by a patchwork of agreements and agencies largely focused on resource extraction, like fishing or underwater mining.
Ocean conservation groups celebrated the signing but urged the Canadian government to act quickly and ratify the treaty aimed at protecting marine biodiversity in shared international waters, also known as the BBNJ Agreement.
In his capacity of policy director of Nature Canada, Akaash Maharaj witnessed the signing of the “UN Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty”,[which] protects marine biodiversity in international waters. It is arguably the most important conservation measure of all time. This is a victory for everyone who pressed national governments not to leave the world’s oceans abandoned to lawless exploitation. If state parties keep their commitments, the treaty will halt the oceans’ slide into becoming watery deserts, and will give life on Earth a fighting chance

7 March
The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone
As far as humanity is concerned, the transformation of our seas is “effectively permanent.”
By Marina Koren
(The Atlantic) Even after nearly three months of winter, the oceans of the Northern Hemisphere are disturbingly warm. Last summer’s unprecedented temperatures—remember the “hot tub” waters off the coast of Florida?—have simmered down to a sea-surface average around 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the North Atlantic, but even that is unprecedented for this time of year. The alarming trend stretches around the world: 41 percent of the global ocean experienced heat waves in January. The temperatures are also part of a decades-long hot streak in the oceans.
Research suggests that by the end of the century, much of the ocean could be in a permanent heat wave relative to historical thresholds, depending on the quantity of greenhouse gases that humans emit. Many other changes will unfold alongside those hot ocean temperatures: stronger hurricanes, rising sea levels, unmanageable conditions for marine life. Our seas, in other words, will be altered within decades.

16 January
UNDP welcomes UN-Oceans Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction or the High Seas Treaty
Statement delivered by Marcos Neto on behalf of UNDP at the UN-Oceans Principals’ Meeting, on the Agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) or ‘the High Seas Treaty’.
UNDP’s Ocean Promise is our long-term strategy for advancing a blue ocean economy through a just transition that lifts all boats by working closely with governments and all stakeholders from the public, private, and civil society sector.
It aligns closely with the UNDP Nature Pledge and UNDP Climate Promise.
Through our Ocean Promise, UNDP emphasizes the inclusive ambitions of the BBNJ though fair and equitable benefit-sharing. We will help to ensure that all groups benefit from the sustainable use of marine resources and protection of its biodiversity.