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Your Excellency Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, the Sea and Fisheries of France,
Executive Secretaries,
Colleagues in UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme,
Welcome to the 24th Global Meeting of the Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans, taking place during the third UN Ocean Conference.
Before we begin, please let us take a moment to remember Stjepan Kečkeš, founder of UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme and the first coordinator of the Mediterranean Action Plan, who passed away last week aged 93. He will be remembered as a principled and visionary leader, who set us on the path we continue down today. He will be missed.
We are meeting amid a surge in marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, plastic pollution and more. This is deeply concerning. But you, the conventions and action plans that form UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme, are the seawall that can help to hold back this surge.
The Regional Seas Programme – through 18 Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans that facilitate regional cooperation across over 146 countries – translates global commitments into regionally tailored actions.
You have, over fifty years, marked many successes. And your work remains vital to meeting global goals. From the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to the Paris Agreement to the Global Framework on Chemicals.
I am pleased that the Regional Seas Strategic Directions 2026–2030, which you will approve at this meeting, seeks to accelerate action at a crucial time for coastal and marine environments and the communities that depend on them. Please allow me a few moments to reflect on some of the issues in your docket.
One, meeting the 30x30 goal.
You are aware of the urgency of this task. You contributed to the new 30x30 Ocean Action plan launched at this Ocean Conference. And today you will be adopting a roadmap on how to contribute to meeting this goal, which is woven into your Strategic Direction document. UNEP is here to support you every step of the way.
And we are making progress. Yes, an area at sea larger than the Indian Ocean needs to be protected by 2030 to meet Target 3 of the GBF, but I always choose to see the positives and, while I will not say that the glass is half full, it is getting fuller. Let us not forget that in 2010, when we met in Nagoya at COP10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, we agreed to protect 10 per cent of our ocean by 2020. But COVID had other plans, so we lost a couple of years.
But new research released before this conference tells us we have made it to 8.6 per cent, which is good progress. Now we need to be sure that what we do protect is representative of unique and important biodiversity; that the quality of what we protect is ensured; that we have contiguity in ecosystem terms; and that this work is rooted in equity. And of course, we must ensure it is well-managed.
Now we also all know that there are categories of protection. Just 2.7 per cent of the ocean is assessed and found to be effectively protected in no-take zones. That matters of course, because we do want to see meaningful conservation and protection. And I am therefore delighted to hear President Macron speak to the banning of bottom trawling in Mareine Protected Areas.
Two, taking action into the high seas.
Only 1.7 per cent of the ocean in areas beyond national jurisdiction is covered by protected and conserved areas. This is why it is crucial to secure enough ratifications to bring into force the BBNJ Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction. I know many Member States under the Regional Seas Programme have been actively engaged in the ratification process. But we must all do more.
UNEP is already home to 17 conventions, including the biodiversity convention, the chemical conventions, and soon – I trust – the plastic pollution convention, as well as the regional seas conventions.
So, it is no secret that I believe UNEP should be the home of the BBNJ Secretariat, regardless of which nation Member States choose as host. Welcoming the BBNJ into our family would increase the substance and obviously cost efficiency, effectiveness and alignment of actions across all ocean commitments. Be it biodiversity; be it migratory species, be it chemical pollution or indeed plastic pollution. Whatever the outcome, the Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans must work with other organizations to support Member States on future implementation of the BBNJ.
Three, establishing stronger collaboration and engagement with other global agreements.
There are many multilateral environmental agreements that affect and are affected by the work of the Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans. This includes the instrument to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, currently under negotiation. Closer collaboration with these agreements, old and new, can amplify impact and efficiency in times of budgetary stress.
I am pleased that the agenda of this meeting includes the endorsement of a joint statement on regional and subregional collaboration and the issue of strengthening partnerships for effective implementation of knowledge and best practice exchange. And I encourage everyone to attend the seventh session of the UN Environment Assembly this December, when we will again host a Multilateral Environmental Agreement Day looking at how to unite all conventions for stronger and faster action.
Colleagues,
I thank you again for all your hard work. The Regional Seas Programme truly is a pearl of the UNEP family. I wish you every success in your deliberations and look forward to achieving more, together, as we seek to accelerate action in the run-up to 2030.
