During the third session of Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Conference, the High Seas Alliance referred to the IPBES Global Assessment as proof that the BBNJ Treaty is urgently needed

Description of Impact(s) (English Only) The third session of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) began on 19 August 2019. The Coordinator for the High Seas Alliance, Peggy Kalas, delivered an opening statement in which she referenced the IPBES Global Assessment at length. Referring to one finding of the Global Assessment—that transformative change is needed to halt the dangerous decline of nature—Kalas said that the BBNJ treaty “can be that transformative change for the ocean” and that this IGC session needs to make tangible progress on the draft, incorporating provisions that will “legally protect the biodiversity in nearly 70% of the global ocean and almost half of our planet.”