“ 海平面上升
The ocean is Earth’s greatest climate mitigator, but it cannot do its work without biodiversity. Yet accelerating climate change, unsustainable fishin and widespread plastic and other pollutants, combined with increased resource demands, are threatening life throughout our global ocean. This is particularly acute in the two-thirds of the ocean (the high seas and seabed below) located beyond national boundaries, and as such, no state can solve these problems alone. Since 2018, member states of the United Nations have been crafting an international treaty to protect high-seas biodiversity and to ensure that human pressures are kept to a level that sustains this variety. Last month, the fifth and supposedly final session of the UN Intergovernmental Conference fell short of this goal. Unfortunately, disagreements on fundamental issues meant that negotiators ran out of time. Achieving a timely treaty requires resuming the dialogue as soon as possible with more visible public and political support to surmount remaining hurdles.
海洋是地球上最大的气候缓解剂，但没有生物多样性，海洋就无法发挥作用。然而，加速的气候变化、不可持续的捕捞、广泛的塑料和其他污染物，再加上资源需求的增加，正在威胁着我们整个全球海洋的生命。在国家边界以外的三分之二的海洋（公海和海底），这种情况尤为严重，因此，没有任何国家能够单独解决这些问题。自2018年以来，联合国一直在制定一项国际条约，以保护公海生物多样性，并确保人类压力保持在维持这种多样性的水平。上个月，联合国政府间会议第五届会议，未能实现这一目标。不幸的是，在基本问题上的分歧意味着谈判人员难以达成共识。要及时达成条约，就需要尽快恢复对话，并获得更明显的公众和政治支持，以克服剩余的障碍。
These little-known negotiations should compel a sense of urgency because at risk are vital ecosystem services that keep Earth’s climate livable. Existing regional and global organizations for managing fishing, shipping, or deep-sea mining lack a global focus on marine biodiversity that the new treaty could provide. The good news is that despite the delay, negotiators made meaningful progress. This includes accepting key principles and approaches to advance ecosystem-based management, recognizing roles for science as well as traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples and local communities, and agreeing to establish key institutions such as regular meetings of the states parties to maintain progress. Yet negotiators face many daunting divides. They have to find an acceptable balance between state autonomy and collective action to effectively manage marine protected areas, review environmental impact assessments, and hold each other accountable for harm. Also debated is how to more equitably share benefits derived from marine genetic resources. Potentially valuable genetic material from marine life has prospective applications in agriculture, industry, and biomedicine and can inform research, assessments, and monitoring of the ocean.
这些鲜为人知的谈判应该促使人们产生紧迫感，因为面临风险的是维持地球气候宜居的重要生态系统服务。现有的管理渔业、航运或深海采矿的区域和全球组织缺乏新条约所能提供的对海洋生物多样性的全球关注。好消息是，尽管拖延，谈判人员还是取得了有意义的进展。这包括接受关键原则和方法来推进基于生态系统的管理，承认科学以及土著人民和地方社区的传统知识的作用，并同意建立关键机构，如缔约国定期会议，以保持进展。然而，谈判人员面临许多令人畏惧的分歧。它们必须在国家自治和集体行动之间找到一种可以接受的平衡，以有效管理海洋保护区，审查环境影响评估，并相互追究损害责任。还讨论了如何更公平地分享海洋遗传资源的惠益。海洋生物潜在的宝贵遗传物质在农业、工业和生物医学中有着潜在的应用前景，可以为海洋的研究、评估和监测提供信息。
图片来源 | Pixabay
翻译 | 新译科技AI+人工校对
编辑、排版 | 新译研究院
