Assessments and their status in international law

Abstract

The workshop addressed the issue of "environmental impact assessments" in the new implementation agreement under the law of the sea convention on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ. This was the opening presentation. The purpose was to give a brief overview of different types of assessments and their status in international law. I also made several comments to the negotiations. At the moment, there are major weaknesses in what is proposed, particularly the lack of text on state of the environment/regional assessments and strategic environmental assessments (SEA).