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Explain Global Commons first.
With Sovereignty tensions ever growing in the region, Russia is dramatically increasing its polar presence, from military development to shipping route patrols.
Global Commons Protection and National Interests
Global Oceans Treaty aka BBNJ (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction) Treaty
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To protect our Ocean Commons, we need a strong Global Oceans Treaty – a UN High Seas Treaty
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·This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn the tide and protect marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction including in the frozen Ocean Commons of the North Pole. This Treaty will help protect Earth's indispensable and rapidly diminishing Central Arctic Ocean Ice Shield and its effective long-term protection as a Global Commons Heritage (Marine) Reserve must not be neutered by political or commercial interests
The high-seas that encompass 61% of Earth’s oceans are only 1.18% protected.(UNEP-WCMC & IUCN, 2021), while the remaining nationally governed waters are less than 18% protected. Establishing protection in non-jurisdictional waters is a challenge due to the labyrinthine of legal frameworks.
As a member of the High Seas Alliance, we are mobilizing for a fit-for-purpose treaty to align governing bodies for the protection of the High Seas: the forgotten half of the planet.
EEZ Extensions Threaten the Central Arctic Ocean and its Ice Shield
The process for extending the 200 mile limit of a coastal state was established under the Law of the Sea in 1982. There is no environmental review required to define the impacts of the intended use of the EEZ extensions.
Should be all current continental shelf submissions
Russia’s extended continental shelf submissions, now occupying 70% of the CAO: 2011 submission (light yellow); 2015 (light green); 2021 (darker green). Credit: IBRU, Durham University.
Global Choices holds that this process is antiquated, needing review and revision before any extensions are granted in the CAO, because the intention is to o command oil and gas exploitation, deep seabed mining, create new shipping lanes across the North Pole and even test nuclear-weapons, all of which should not be allowed in such a fragile ecosystem already under threat by global warming, and of such international significance because of the global ecoservices it provides.