Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill

Debate between Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb and Lord Teverson

3rd reading
Monday 19th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, the treaty came into operation on Saturday, so this is a very appropriate day. My only sadness on this excellent occasion is that, as I said on Report, I believe that this is probably one of the last agreements that we will have internationally from the United Nations in the near future, given the disrespect that we increasingly have for international law and international agreements among the community and certain major players within the United Nations.

Having said that, this is a moment of celebration. We have made an important step forward in terms of biodiversity and the protection of nature across a very large proportion of our planet’s surface, which until now has been—as the Bill says—beyond jurisdiction. There are now 81 ratifications of that treaty, and we will hopefully very soon be among them. We expect the conference of the parties, probably in August, and the plea from our Benches is that the United Kingdom has one of the greatest ambitions at that first meeting and collaborates with other parties that have ratified the treaty to make sure that it really does mean something and makes a real change for our planet and our oceans.

I thank the Minister for her co-operation, help and advice as we have gone through this Bill, and for the way that she has listened. It has been good to have the opposition and government spokespeople speaking as one, generally, on what we have sought to achieve here. I thank my Whip’s Office, particularly Ulysse Abbate for his work, and Members on our Benches for the work that they have done on this Bill. Let us make this something that is really special and really works, allowing us to move towards the global target of a third of our oceans being put aside for protection and biodiversity in one of the most important areas of our planet.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

I do not think that any Bill on the ocean would ever have gone far enough for me, but I am very happy that this Bill is passing. I congratulate the Minister on her efforts to keep us calm when we were getting a bit overexcited about what we wanted to see in the Bill. I look forward to watching exactly what happens at the forthcoming meetings.

Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill

Debate between Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb and Lord Teverson

Report stage
Monday 12th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

My Lords, I support the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller. It is an extremely good amendment, and I urge the Minister to pick it up at some future date. This is such a good amendment that it should go into legislation somewhere.

In Committee, we heard at length and with real concern about the scale and persistence of plastic pollution in our oceans. Much of that discussion centred on consumable plastics and waste, but plastic pellets, flakes and powders are equally serious and often overlooked in legislation. These losses might be small in individual incidents, although some might be extremely large, but they are cumulative and, in effect, irretrievable and irreversible once they have happened.

We are looking ahead, apparently, to a global plastics treaty, which I am very excited about. That process is obviously welcome, but the urgency of the problem means that we should take every available opportunity to act now, particularly where there is already an international consensus on best practice.

What I welcome very much about this amendment is its practical focus. This would stop the plastic pellets getting into the sea in the first place instead of our trying to mop them up and recover them later which is, as I said, impossible.

I will also speak to my Amendment 9 on the exemptions in the Bill. Clause 18 seeks to strengthen confidence in how environmental impact assessments are applied. It worries me that there are so many exemptions. Again, I would very much appreciate it if the Minister took this issue up. My amendment is supported by WildFish, an organisation with extensive expertise in marine conservation, whose work highlights the importance of making sure that decisions to rely on exemptions are transparent, on a case-by-case basis, and ensure that there is an equivalence that meets Part IV of the BBNJ agreement and Article 206 of UNCLOS. This amendment would clearly set out that test. Where an appropriate authority determines that a formal environmental impact assessment is not required, that determination should rest on the existence of another assessment being in place that is equivalently robust.

The amendment would also ensure that the reasoning behind such decisions was recorded and published, with the idea to keep decisions transparent and uphold public trust. In particular, there are difficulties in relying on regional fisheries management organisations as a substitute for BBNJ-aligned environmental assessment. Although RFMOs play an important role in managing fishing effort and target stocks, their processes do not routinely deliver full assessment of cumulative impacts across sectors, of effects on food webs and non-target species, or of the full implications for migratory species that cross jurisdictional boundaries. I would be very happy to talk to the Minister in more detail about this and I hope to see it in a future Bill. I would like to have moved this amendment, but we are obviously in a hurry to complete the Bill, so I have held off, but it is incredibly important that we do not allow exemptions without understanding why they have happened and the fact that they have not been recorded properly.

As interest grows in new industries, such as open ocean aquaculture, the potential environmental impacts, ranging from disease and growth in parasites to genetic impacts from escapes and reliance on wild-caught fish, are even more important. We are seeing this in salmon farms at the moment: escaped fish covered in all sorts of rather nasty things spread to wild fish and cross-breed, which is deeply unhealthy for the wild fish. I would welcome the Minister putting on record how the Government intend to apply these equivalence criteria in practice, particularly in view of the regional fisheries management organisations. I would like reassurance that exemptions in any future legislation will be applied narrowly and cautiously; that equivalence will be actively tested and not just assumed; that reliance on regional organisations alone will not automatically justify exemption; and that future high-risk activities will be subject to BBNJ-aligned screening.

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, we on these Benches support the intent of the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones. I hope the Minister will have a useful reply to it.

On plastics and the amendment tabled by my noble friend Lady Miller, one of the things that is clear is that, even in terms of human health and the food chain, plastics discarded anywhere, let alone in the ocean, are a huge issue for the future. I have one question for the Minister. One of the tragedies of last year was that the plastics treaty was not concluded, despite expectation. It is largely thought that that was because of the lobbying of the plastics industry. Certainly, the United States has not exactly been supportive of international agreements over the past 12 months. It would be great if, despite my pessimism about the future of that treaty, there was some feeling within her department that perhaps it is not dead, as it is supposed not to be, and there is still some mileage and hope that we might be able to find a conclusion to it.