This was a amendment on the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Act 2026. The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Act 2026 brings UK law in line with the UN BBNJ Agreement. It creates a framework to regulate access to marine genetic resources and share benefits from areas beyond national jurisdiction, with licensing, reporting, and environmental safeguards, and it expands powers to devolved administrations while addressing plastics pollution, human rights at sea and the risk of offshoring research.
•Implements the UN Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement in UK law, covering access to marine genetic resources, deposits of samples, and recording digital sequence information through a Clearing-House Mechanism.
•Strengthens licensing, environmental impact assessment, enforcement, and reporting, including regular (every two years) updates, and introduces penalties to ensure compliance.
•Adds powers for Scotland and Northern Ireland to regulate to meet UK obligations, with consultation rules and procedural safeguards, aligning devolved governance with the central regime.
•Proposes measures to prevent offshoring of marine research and commerce to dodge obligations, strengthens licensing and impact assessment rules related to areas beyond national jurisdiction, and requires a plastics pollution statement and actions (aligned with MEPC.1/Circ.909).
