The United States welcomes the General Assembly resolution on oceans and the law of the sea, as well as the resolution on sustainable fisheries. The United States greatly values the platform the General Assembly provides to elevate important ocean and fisheries issues through these resolutions. The United States is proud to be a co-sponsor of both of these resolutions.
The United States underscores the central importance of international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention – the universal and unified character of which is emphasized in the oceans resolution.
As we see attempts to impede the lawful exercise of navigational rights and freedoms under international law, it is more important than ever that we remain steadfast in our resolve to uphold these rights and freedoms.
In this regard, we call on all States to resolve their territorial and maritime disputes peacefully and free from coercion, in accordance with international law; to fashion their maritime claims and conduct their activities in the maritime domain in accordance with international law as reflected in the Convention; and to respect the freedoms of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea that all users of the maritime domain enjoy.
We reiterate our deep concern with respect to expansive and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea that do not have a basis in the Convention and call on all claimants to comport their maritime claims with the international law of the sea as reflected in the Convention. In this regard, the United States highlights its December 5, 2024, letter from Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield to the Secretary General protesting the unlawful maritime claims made by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the PRC’s most recent response to Malaysia’s submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, as well as the United States’ technical and legal study, Limits in the Seas No. 150, examining the PRC’s excessive claims in the South China Sea. We also emphasize that straight baselines may only be used in the specific and precise circumstances provided by the Convention.
We gather today toward the end of another extraordinary year of action toward protecting ocean health. The United States was proud to announce over $500 million in actions at the ninth Our Ocean Conference in Athens in April. These actions address priorities across all six of the conference’s pillars: sustainable blue economies; maritime security; sustainable fisheries; marine pollution; climate change; and marine protected areas. We applaud the Government of Greece for hosting this important and impactful event, which closed with over 471 announcements totaling over $11 billion. The Our Ocean Conference has become an important annual mobilizer of concrete actions for the ocean, catalyzing over 2600 voluntary commitments worth approximately $140 billion from governments, the private sector, and civil society since its founding in 2014. We look forward to next year’s Our Ocean Conference hosted by the Government of the Republic of Korea, and we look forward to seeing the international community ramp up its action with significant and compelling new announcements across the conference’s thematic areas.
Despite the mobilization and critical actions taken by the international community, including both governments and non-governmental entities, the ocean remains under threat from multiple stressors, demanding additional innovative solutions that will protect the ocean, the livelihoods it supports, and the ecosystem services it provides.
Among the most devastating impacts is sea-level rise. The United States believes that sea-level rise driven by human-induced climate change should not diminish the maritime zones on which island States and other coastal States rely, including for food and livelihoods. We are committed to preserving the legitimacy of lawfully established maritime zones and their associated rights and entitlements. As we have stated, the United States will not challenge lawfully established baselines and maritime zone limits that are not subsequently updated despite sea-level rise caused by climate change. We encourage others to adopt a practice consistent with this approach.
We also appreciate the elevation of the issue of sea-level rise in international fora, and we were pleased to participate in the first high-level meeting on “Addressing the existential threats posed by sea-level rise” during High-Level Week this year.
The United States is supportive of efforts to ensure effective protection of the marine environment and responsible access to critical minerals for the clean energy transition. The United States will continue to advocate at the International Seabed Authority for the completion of a stable, science-based, internationally recognized regulatory framework for developing seabed mineral resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction that ensures effective protection for the marine environment. The United States has supported such a framework for decades. The United States also supports continuing research and monitoring to improve understanding of potential seabed resources and their implications.
We note that leadership of the ISA will transition next month from Secretary General Michael Lodge to Secretary General-elect Leticia Carvalho of Brazil. We were pleased to see the election of the first woman Secretary-General welcomed in the oceans resolution. We congratulate Secretary General-elect Carvalho and pledge our delegation’s support for her successful leadership of the ISA.
We commend Secretary General Lodge for his decades of committed service, contributions, innovations, and leadership in the progressive development of the law of the sea. Secretary General Lodge leaves an enduring legacy in international law, and we wish him well in this transition and in his future endeavours.
Mr. President, another essential tool for protecting biodiversity and ocean health will be the BBNJ agreement, or High Seas Treaty as it is also known. The BBNJ Agreement is key to supporting the sustainable use of high seas marine resources, maintaining the integrity of high seas ecosystems, and conserving high seas marine biodiversity. The United States was proud to sign the agreement the day it opened for signature. We look forward to working with the global community to prepare for implementation of the treaty once it enters into force.
The United States was proud to release its National Strategy for a Sustainable Ocean Economy in June 2024, committing to 100% sustainable management of ocean areas under U.S. national jurisdiction. The Strategy focuses on three interconnected goals – conserve healthy ocean and coastal ecosystems; support resilient people and communities; and advance sustainable and just economic development. Advancing sustainable ocean-based economies requires developing sustainable industries and infrastructure, building a skilled and diverse workforce, supporting coastal resilience, and strengthening ocean science and innovation.
On December 19, 2023, the United States published the limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast in accordance with customary international law as reflected in the Convention. We wish to emphasize the centrality of the Convention in this two-decade-long effort. The United States has used the rules in Article 76 and the Scientific and Technical Guidelines of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to determine its continental shelf limits. All data collected as part of the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Project have been made available to the public. The United States would like to highlight that customary international law, as reflected in the Convention, confers rights and obligations relating to the continental shelf on all coastal States, including non-Parties to the Convention such as the United States. Article 77 of the Law of the Sea Convention and Article 2 of the 1958 Continental Shelf Convention state that “[t]he rights of the coastal State over the continental shelf do not depend on occupation, effective or notional, or on any express proclamation.” This provision, along with the International Court of Justice’s 1969 North Sea judgment, reflect longstanding customary international law that provides that continental shelf rights are inherent to the coastal State and derive from a State’s sovereignty over its land territory. Nevertheless, the United States has prepared a submission to the CLCS which we will file with the Commission when the United States joins the Law of the Sea Convention, and we are open to filing this submission with the Commission as a non-Party to the Convention.
One important conservation and management issue that we are pleased to see continue to be reflected in this year’s oceans and sustainable fisheries resolutions is the precautionary approach. The precautionary approach is enshrined in the BBNJ Agreement and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement, and it is crucial to protecting living marine resources, preserving the marine environment, and managing fisheries through regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs).
The sustainability of fisheries and fishing activities is crucial for the livelihoods and food and nutritional security of people around the world. Yet fisheries continue to face threats – from lack of science-based management to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing – affecting everything from the health of ecosystems and coastal communities to the economic development and prosperity of States.
For a sustainable, climate-resilient future we must support sustainable fisheries and sustainable aquatic food systems without further degrading habitats or ocean ecosystems – especially in light of the climate crisis, which is altering marine ecosystems and the fisheries that depend on them. We were disappointed, in this regard, that we could not agree to text that recognizes that sea ice edges and sea ice habitats can be vulnerable to significant adverse impacts.
We look forward to celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement next year and discussing this notable anniversary and the achievements under the Agreement at the 18th round of informal consultations of States Parties to the UN Fish Stocks Agreement in 2025.
The UN Fish Stocks Agreement is a foundational text for the conservation and management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks and provides an important structure for our collective work to sustainably manage fisheries. One of the most important achievements under the UN Fish Stocks Agreement is the establishment of and work within regional fisheries management organizations to effectively and sustainably manage fisheries to support livelihoods, food, and nutritional security, as well as the long-term health of ocean ecosystems.
We were also pleased this year to welcome the technical expertise of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and note their publications. The FAO remains the global body with both the mandate and the technical expertise to advance issues related to the sustainable management and development of international fisheries and aquaculture, and its expert technical papers and other publications are an important contribution to sustainable fisheries management.
With regard to both the oceans and fisheries resolutions, we emphasize that the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are distinct international agreements. Although we do not think it is necessary to include footnotes for these well-known agreements in resolutions, if footnotes are included, we further emphasize the importance of using correct and equivalent citations to these agreements, including to the UN Treaty Series number for each agreement. We will not treat language on the UNFCCC or Paris Agreement in this resolution as precedent or as having weight in this or any other forum.
We also refer you to our General Statement delivered on November 13, 2024, to the 79th General Assembly Second Committee session, which details the U.S. position on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, technology transfer, and the institutional independence of the World Trade Organization.
We would like to thank the coordinators of the informal consultations on both resolutions – Ms. Natalie Morris-Sharma of Singapore and Mr. Andreas Kravik of Norway – for their outstanding coordination of the resolutions.
We also would like to thank the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea for its expertise and hard work throughout the consultations on both resolutions.
Finally, we express our appreciation for delegations’ flexibility and cooperation in working together to address the numerous and complex issues that lie ahead for the ocean and for fisheries.