Monday August 22, 2022
Euronews —
On Monday, the UN began the latest set of talks to protect the world’s oceans from exploitation in New York.
This once in a lifetime opportunity to safeguard our waters’ biodiversity has now been through 10 years of negotiations. But, if signed, 30 per cent of the world’s oceans would become conservation areas before the end of the decade.
Why is the UN oceans treaty important?
The high seas make up around two thirds of the world’s oceans. They are beyond the jurisdiction of any country meaning everyone has the right to fish, pass through in ships, do research there or even carry out deep sea mining.
Just 1.2 per cent of these deep waters are protected. This leaves the wealth of biodiversity outside of these areas open to overexploitation and the impacts of climate change.
They are also heavily under researched, meaning scientists fear that new species could be lost before they are even discovered.