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State of the World
Port of Nice, France, during the United Nations Oceans Conference in June 2025.
Amid a rising tide of concerns about the temperature, level, and even the color of the world’s oceans, the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) gathered in Nice, France, last weekend to try to address some of the challenges. The principal topic was the High Seas Treaty: dubbed the “Paris Agreement for the ocean,” the pact aims to boost conservation efforts in areas outside of national jurisdictions, which accounts nearly half of the planet’s surface.
To learn more about this critical treaty, Eurasia Group’s biodiversity and sustainability analyst María José Valverde sat down with Rebecca Hubbard, the director of the High Seas Alliance. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
María José Valverde: How have you seen the marine sector evolve since the first UN Ocean Conference?
Rebecca Hubbard: The ocean sector has made significant progress since the first UNOC, especially in public and political awareness. Interest in ocean conservation has grown, particularly regarding the high seas, which were historically viewed as a secondary issue because we don’t live in them. Governments are also looking at it through the frame of the blue economy and increasingly understand the importance of sustainable resource management, including the role oceans play in absorbing heat and carbon dioxide. There’s also been greater political will to act, supported by countless civil society organizations and initiatives like the UN Decade of Ocean Science. And in that process, the High Seas Treaty came to fruition, which marks a landmark change in how we govern the high seas, which cover half of the planet. That’s no small feat.
This is the first ocean conference with the Global Biodiversity Framework and the 30x30 marine target in place. How does that affect your work when engaging countries or sectors?
The adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – including the goal to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 – has made a big difference. It’s absolutely critical for the high seas; the areas beyond national jurisdiction cover around two-thirds of the ocean and we will not be able to reach the 30% target if we do not protect the high seas.
Given the challenges of coordinating across borders and institutional frameworks, do you expect practical difficulties in implementing and achieving agreement under the High Seas Treaty?
Implementation is always more challenging than making commitments, but we’ve built substantial political momentum. When it comes to doing any of these conservation tasks, it’s really about leaders and governments feeling ownership and understanding the value, and many countries have gone to great lengths to ratify and prepare for implementation, despite the complex processes of legislation, consultation, and educating their ministries and departments.
Even with current geopolitical tensions, there’s a genuine appetite for multilateralism because countries realize global challenges demand collaboration. We’ve already seen strong regional cooperation in places like Asia-Pacific and Latin America, where countries support one another in understanding how to implement the Treaty. It won’t be simple, but there is real hope and determination to achieve something globally significant.
Are there regions or countries that stand out as leaders in supporting the ratification and implementation process?
We’ve seen leadership come from across all regions, which is very encouraging. In the Pacific, developing, small-island states have renamed themselves the “big ocean states,” and have remained ocean and climate champions. Palau specifically was the first one to ratify the treaty, and we’ve got a number of others that have also ratified it, all working together to pursue ratification as a region. Costa Rica and France, as co-hosts of the UNOC, have made Treaty ratification a core goal, leveraging diplomatic networks to encourage others. The Philippines has been a regional leader in Asia, hosting capacity-building workshops for other Southeast Asian countries, even though domestic politics have slowed their own ratification. Nigeria has emerged as a leader in Africa – they were not the first to ratify the treaty, but they have provided a lot of support and encouragement to other countries. Finally, the preparatory meetings to establish institutional processes for the Treaty have shown strong engagement and consensus-building, which is very promising for future implementation.
What are the main barriers to the approval of the High Seas Treaty?
A significant barrier is the lack of understanding. Our efforts are focused on raising awareness among countries, especially within their ministries, about how activities in the high seas affect their national waters. Species and ecosystems are interconnected, and actions in the high seas can undermine national conservation efforts if not properly managed. Specifically for landlocked countries, of which there are over 40, discussions focus on the ocean's role in climate systems and water cycles. There is potential there for capacity building, marine technology transfer, and marine genetic resource finance. High seas research can bolster national science and tech sectors, as accessing this data is typically cost-prohibitive for individual countries.
What’s next for the High Seas Alliance once the Treaty is ratified? What are your immediate objectives?
Ratification feels like the end, but it’s really just the beginning. Our goal is to get at least 60 countries to ratify – hopefully by UNOC, or very shortly thereafter – so that the Treaty can enter into force. Then we’ll push for universal ratification and support countries in building the institutions and processes that make the Treaty functional, inclusive, and efficient. We’ve already started working on implementation; we did a science symposium in Australia on the Lord Howe and Tasman Sea region, and some workshops in the Walvis Ridge, which is off the coast of Africa.
What inspired you to devote your career to ocean conservation?
I’ve always loved the ocean. I was very fortunate to grow up in Australia, spending much of my childhood at the beach thanks to my dad, who was a surfer. I grew up with love, fear and respect for the ocean – and the fact that we’ve done so much damage to it, not valued how it’s the source of all life on the planet, and how little effort we put into it to care for it made me decide that this is what I needed to work on. I have now worked on ocean conservation for 20 years.
The High Seas Treaty, for me, represents the single biggest step we can take for global conservation, given the central role of the ocean in supporting life. It’s also a source of inspiration; more people should focus on the spiritual benefits that we get from nature and from the ocean, instead of reducing them to their scientific or economic value.Nuns and faithful attend a rosary for Pope Francis, following the death of the pontiff, in St. Peter's square, at the Vatican, April 21, 2025.
Preparations for the funeral of Pope Francis are underway after the Holy Father died from a cerebral stroke early Monday – as are those for the secretive election to choose his successor.
The funeral date has been set for Saturday. Tens of thousands attended the funeral of Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, in 2022, who had retired in 2013. When John Paul II died in 2005, some four million people paid their respects. This time, leaders from around the globe are expected to attend, including Donald Trump, who is set to become the first sitting US president to attend a papal funeral since 2005.
Francis will be dressed in red regalia, and his ring of office will be ceremonially destroyed, but much of the proceedings will break from tradition: He ordered that he be laid to rest in a simple coffin and interred in Santa Maria Maggiore, not the Vatican grottoes.
Choosing a successor. Within 20 days, Catholic cardinals under the age of 80 (135 out of 252) will gather in the Sistine Chapel to choose the next pope. The conclave – from a Latin root meaning “with keys” – is shut off from the wider world, a measure deemed necessary after medieval interregna lasted months or years due to secular political meddling.
There are no guarantees, but the electoral math points to a potentially short contest: 108 of the 135 eligible elector cardinals were appointed by Francis and may quickly assemble the necessary two-thirds consensus around a successor with similarly progressive values.Listen: The world is grappling with intense political and humanitarian challenges—raging wars, surging nationalism, and a warming climate, to name a few. Yet, we also stand at the brink of some of the most transformative opportunities in human history. So how do we make sense of the future and what’s next? Ian Bremmer breaks it all down in a special edition of the GZERO World Podcast: The 2024 State of the World.
Each year, Ian examines the biggest political moments (and movements) and shares an honest assessment of where we are… and where we’re going. Most worrying? Leadership, or rather, the glaring lack of it. Nowhere is this clearer than in ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, where everyone claims to want peace, but no one is both willing and able to make it happen. But it’s not all bleak. There are plenty of reasons for optimism. Ian Bremmer discusses the good, the bad, and where we all go from here in his 2024 State of the World, delivered live at the GZERO Summit in Tokyo, Japan.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.
As these technological races accelerate, it remains clear that the US and China will continue to shape the future in distinct and often opposing ways, leaving other nations to navigate the complex terrain between these global giants.
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In a powerful and candid address, Ian Bremmer delivered a sobering reflection on the state of democracy in the United States during his annual "State of the World" speech at the 2024 GZERO Summit Japan in Tokyo.
"My country, the United States, is today at war with itself," said Bremmer.
With the November 5th election on the horizon, Bremmer highlighted the fractures within the US political system, emphasizing the growing chasm between political parties, voters, and the institutions meant to uphold democracy. He further painted a grim picture of the post-election period, saying, "We are about to have an election whose outcome will be perceived as illegitimate by nearly half of the country."
He noted that tens of millions of Americans are disillusioned and convinced that their political system is broken. The stakes are high, and the larger issue is the growing perception among voters that their democracy is being "stolen" or "subverted." The result is a deeply polarized nation, where even after a president is eventually declared, a significant portion of the population will reject the legitimacy of the outcome, leading to political and social instability.
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With the US presidential election less than two weeks away, Ian Bremmer weighed in on who could come out on top in his "State of the World" speech at the 2024 GZERO Summit in Tokyo. Bremmer says the US faces a crisis of democracy, but who does he think will win the upcoming election? Watch to hear his prediction.
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