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On the evening of 21 July 2017, a UN Preparatory Committee agreed, by consensus, to recommend that the UN General Assembly decide as soon as possible to begin intergovernmental negotiations on a legally binding agreement. This now concludes more than a decade of preparatory work to set the stage for a treaty to safeguard marine life beyond national jurisdiction. The high seas and International Seabed Area account for nearly two-thirds of the global ocean and are critical to providing food, jobs and nearly 50% of the oxygen we breathe; the ocean absorbs nearly 30% of the CO2 we emit daily and has absorbed 93% of the heat resulting from increased CO2.

The covers options for management of marine genetic resources, especially access and benefit-sharing; environmental impact assessment; area-based management tools, especially marine protected areas; capacity-building and technology transfer; and cross-cutting issues like institutional design. The UN General Assembly must now agree to a formal resolution launching negotiations, and could begin negotiating in 2018. It is assumed that there will be two sessions a year, each two weeks, running for at least two years. The WCEL Specialist Group provided expertise to the numerous meetings as members of several delegations. Additional participation in the , held the previous month to launch , also supported the goals of ocean conservation. Both implementation of SDG 14 commitments and the development of a text for an international instrument on governance of ocean biodiversity will provide many opportunities for the Specialist Group to further contribute.