On 23 September 2025, through the eightieth Session of the UN General Assembly, M. Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, introduced collectively, within the presence of UN Secretary-General Mr Antonio Guterres, all of the representatives of the 68 States that, thus far, have deposited their devices of ratification of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas past National Jurisdiction (the BBNJ Agreement), permitting this decisive settlement for the ocean and planet to come back into drive on 17 January 2026.
The excessive seas, which cowl 50% of the earth’s floor, now have a governance primarily based on science and safety. France’s diplomatic motion was decisive for the settlement to enter into drive within the area of solely two years. By means of comparability, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea took greater than 12 years, between its signing in 1982 and entry into drive in 1994.
President Macron paid tribute to “all of the member States which, through the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025, led to an unprecedented consciousness of the challenges of the High Seas, and which at this time have joined the group of 60 pioneer international locations. Born out of the One Ocean Summit in Brest in February 2022, this unprecedented mobilization led, in file time, to the adoption of the treaty in New York in June 2023, the edge of 60 ratifications at this time and the group in 2026 of the primary Ocean COP. It’s an enormous victory for multilateralism, and France is proud to have contributed to it, I imagine in a serious means”.
M. Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, paid tribute to “the French diplomatic service’s exemplary work of persuasion, which enabled us to safe so rapidly the entry into drive of such a decisive settlement for the way forward for a sustainable planet”.
For Mme Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for the Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, Marine Affairs and Fisheries, “the BBNJ Agreement’s entry into drive is a historic milestone within the safety of the oceans and of marine biodiversity. The settlement, which is the fruit of years of negotiations, exhibits that the worldwide group is able to cooperating to guard our planet’s most fragile ecosystems. I welcome this main step ahead, which ends up from intense efforts by French diplomacy within the run-up to the United Nations Ocean Conference to strengthen the worldwide authorized framework and pave the way in which for the sustainable use of areas past nationwide jurisdictions. It’s now as much as us to flesh out the settlement by mobilizing essentially the most bold international locations. That’s the message I’ll be sending to the Ocean Board’s annual assembly in New York this week.
