Entry into force of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (“BBNJ” Agreement) (24 September[...]

On 23 September 2025, during the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly, M. Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, brought together, in the presence of UN Secretary-General Mr Antonio Guterres, all the representatives of the 68 States that, to date, have deposited their instruments of ratification of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (the BBNJ Agreement), allowing this decisive agreement for the ocean and planet to come into force on 17 January 2026.

The high seas, which cover 50% of the earth's surface, now have a governance based on science and protection. France's diplomatic action was decisive for the agreement to enter into force in the space of only two years. By way of comparison, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea took more than 12 years, between its signing in 1982 and entry into force in 1994.

President Macron paid tribute to "all the member States which, during the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025, brought about an unprecedented awareness of the challenges of the High Seas, and which today have joined the group of 60 pioneer countries. Born out of the One Ocean Summit in Brest in February 2022, this unprecedented mobilization led, in record time, to the adoption of the treaty in New York in June 2023, the threshold of 60 ratifications today and the organization in 2026 of the first Ocean COP. It's a huge victory for multilateralism, and France is proud to have contributed to it, I believe in a major way".

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 secure so quickly the entry into force of such a decisive agreement for the future of 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 force is a historic milestone in the protection of the oceans and of marine biodiversity. The agreement, which is the fruit of years of negotiations, shows that the global community is capable of cooperating to protect our planet's most fragile ecosystems. I welcome this major step forward, which results from intense efforts by French diplomacy in the run-up to the United Nations Ocean Conference to strengthen the international legal framework and pave the way for the sustainable use of areas beyond national jurisdictions. It's now up to us to flesh out the agreement by mobilizing the most ambitious countries. That's the message I'll be sending to the Ocean Board's annual meeting in New York this week.