President of the Conference, Rena Lee, “The ship has reached the shore.”
The President confirmed that the text of the Agreement had been finalised and will now be reviewed for technical edits and then translated into all six official languages of the UN, before being formally adopted. In order to ensure that the text has a uniformity of terminology throughout and across the six official language versions, the President noted a number of things about the text. Firstly, in relation to the provision of ABMTs in which it was decided that the Conference of the Parties (CoP) could decide by consensus or otherwise by voting, one delegation has expressed its reservation on voting. Secondly, in relation to EIAs, it should be noted that the Parties are of a view that EIAs shall be state led. In order to promote transparency, there are provisions in the EIA part of the Agreement which allow another Party to register its views on the impacts of a planned activity, and for the Scientific and Technical Body to make non-binding recommendations. However, the Party’s understanding is that it is the State which decides whether an activity under its jurisdiction or control should proceed. Thirdly, in terms of ABMTs there is an Article on area of application which refers to the CoP not considering for decision proposals for the establishment of any ABMTs involving or including any areas within national jurisdiction. It is understood that the term “the Conference of the Parties shall not consider for decision…” means that the CoP can look at a proposal, but shall not decide on such proposals.
The President proposed the establishment of a formal working group to undertake technical edits be established in order to ensure uniformity of terminology throughout the draft text of the Agreement and to harmonize the six official language versions. There will be no reopening or discussions of substance in this working group or after the group has concluded its work. This work will be reported on at a further resumed firth session. No objections were raised to this approach.
In response to Turkey’s intervention, the President confirmed that the text in Article 48, paragraph 6, and Article 55 had been finalised.
The President then invited consideration of the draft text of the Agreement to the open-ended informal working group. There were no objections. The fifth session was suspended in order to allow for technical edits and the translation into all six official languages and delegations will meet again for half a day in order to formally adopt the text. Final statements will also be made during this session. The General Assembly will decide when the fifth session will be resumed. There were no objections. The President thanked all those involved and the fifth session was suspended until a further resumed session to adopt the text.