After decades of negotiations, a landmark treaty to protect the world’s high seas stands at a turning point – and France is urging countries to ratify it before a major UN ocean summit opens in Nice next month.
The High Seas Treaty, adopted in June 2023 by 193 countries, aims to protect international waters that cover nearly half the planet.
These areas lie beyond any country’s control and remain largely unregulated, despite being vital for marine biodiversity, carbon storage and climate stability.
But the treaty cannot take effect until it is ratified by 60 countries. So far, only 21 have done so.
“What’s the point of negotiating a historic treaty if we leave it in a drawer? A signed treaty protects nothing, but a ratified treaty changes everything,” Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, France’s ambassador for the poles and oceans, told reporters this week.
Once the 60-country threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty enters into force.
It would then allow countries to set up marine protected areas in international waters and require environmental checks on potentially harmful activities, such as fishing or deep-sea mining.
Spain and France were the first two European Union countries to ratify the treaty, doing so in early February 2025.
Other major maritime nations – including the United States, Australia, Russia, the United Kingdom and Japan – have signed the treaty but have yet to ratify it.
Poivre d’Arvor urged these top maritime powers to “take responsibility” and help bring the agreement into force.
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Why the treaty matters
The high seas cover more than 60 percent of the world’s oceans, but just 1 percent is currently protected.
A 2021 UN report estimated that 3 billion people rely on the ocean for their livelihoods. Ocean-based industries are worth $2.5 trillion a year and employ some 40 million people.
The treaty provides legal tools for protecting marine ecosystems, regulating access to genetic resources and boosting scientific cooperation.
It also supports the global target of protecting 30 percent of the world’s land and sea by 2030 – known as the “30x30” goal, adopted in 2022 under the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The UN Ocean Conference opens in Nice on 9 June. It is expected to bring together dozens of heads of state and 2,000 scientists from over 100 countries.
France hopes the event will generate political momentum and persuade more countries to ratify the deal.
A ceremony on the opening day will be “a unique opportunity to reaffirm our collective political commitment” Sandrine Barbier, head of the French delegation, said.
France has been clear that visibility alone won’t be enough. Even if more European countries ratify the treaty before the summit, Poivre d’Arvor warned that failure to reach the 60-country threshold by the end of the year would “signal a major failure”.
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A test of political will
Two weeks of talks in New York earlier this month saw movement on how the treaty would function once in force.
“There was a lot of love in the room,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 NGOs working to protect international waters.
She called the agreement “one of our best opportunities to deliver action to protect the ocean”.
Others also noted signs of progress. Nichola Clark, of the Pew Charitable Trusts – a US-based research and policy organisation – said negotiators had moved “one step closer to shaping the institutional backbone” of the deal.
Still, the absence of the United States raised concern.
Washington signed the treaty during Joe Biden’s presidency but has not ratified it. It was also absent from talks in New York.
At the same time, opposition to stricter ocean protections has resurfaced. President Donald Trump this month issued an executive order backing commercial deep-sea mining in international waters.
“This is a clear sign that the US will no longer be a global leader on protecting the oceans,” said Arlo Hemphill, who leads Greenpeace’s campaign against deep-sea mining in the United States.
France sees the treaty as a building block for the first UN Ocean "Cop" and a chance to show leadership in global ocean governance.
“This is not just a treaty,” Poivre d’Arvor said. “It’s a test of our collective commitment to the ocean.”
