Global Ocean Conference Arouses Predictable Rhetorical Questions As To Humanity "Awakening" To Environmental Collapse

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The most important accomplishment was that enough countries either ratified or formally committed to ratifying the high seas treaty. Once ratified, this agreement will help achieve an agreed global target of protecting 30% of the world’s seas by 2030. It will provide the first legal mechanism for the creation of protected areas in the high seas, international waters that cover almost two-thirds of the ocean. The treaty is expected to now come into force by 1 January 2026, said Macron. This alone is an achievement: the early stages of the high seas treaty took 20 years of negotiations before agreement was reached in 2023. Now it could be months away from becoming a reality.

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In April, Donald Trump made a move to fast-track deep-sea mining under US law, sidestepping international efforts to regulate the industry. The conference saw four new countries – now 37 – joining France in calling for a moratorium, pause or ban on deep-sea mining, amid warnings of “irreversible” damage to ecosystems should it go ahead. Trump’s actions, which were criticised by China, which also wants to mine, have had the effect of “strengthening people’s commitment to multilateralism” and building alliances at a key moment, says John Hocevar, oceans campaign director at Greenpeace USA. “In July, the International Seabed Authority meets to discuss, hopefully, a moratorium on deep-sea mining.”

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Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s environment minister, says: “The Pacific island states have banned bottom trawling in their national jurisdictions – and so we are calling on all nations to do the same. The EU is full of countries that are still doing this.” At the start of the conference, the French president found himself under fire for failing to ban bottom trawling in protected marine areas. France announced that instead it would “limit” the practice and seek to protect 4% of its metropolitan waters. One of the strongest critics of France’s role in the summit, was the granddaughter of Jacques Cousteau. France “over-compromised and under-delivered”, she says.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/14/is-the-ocean-having-a-moment-this-was-the-un-summit-where-the-world-woke-up-to-the-decline-of-the-seas