Precautionary Environmental Impact Assessments under the BBNJ Agreement: More than a Minor or Transitory Effect on the Marine Environment?

The Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National (BBNJ Agreement) heralds a new era in the international legal framework to protect the ocean from harmful effects of human activities. One of its achievements is that it formalized global consensus on the imperative to consider conducting environmental impact assessments (EIAs) of planned activities that may have "more than a minor or transitory effect" on the ocean in areas beyond national jurisdiction or where the effects are "unknown or poorly understood." A commendable feature of the EIA provisions is that they adopt core tenets of the precautionary principle—the foremost environmental planning principle that provides the theoretical underpinnings for strong environmental protection measures. The BBNJ Agreement thus provides an advanced EIA process—even more advanced than some national EIA processes in developed states with half a century of legislative EIA experience. This article examines the BBNJ Agreement's provisions on EIA and their alignment with the precautionary principle and considers the potential of the BBNJ Agreement's EIA procedures to improve the management of the marine environment in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and within.