Late last Saturday night at the UN Headquarters in New York and after some voting, Rena Lee from Singapore turned on the microphone in room 2 and said two words: We have a deal! (Five, to be exact: we have an agreement!). The news has spread like wildfire around the world: we have a historic agreement to protect the oceans, the climate and the planet! The surprise in the media was great: a historic deal that almost no one knew about? But it also came as a surprise to us, who were watching history up close. In the same room 2, government officials have been debating endless hours for over 15 years to no avail. A few days ago, the differences between developing and developed countries seemed insurmountable. But the most important thing is that we finally have good news, very good. Having worked on climate change for the past fifteen years, I know, like many others, that good news is scarce. I experienced such an atmosphere of optimism from Paris and the 2015 agreement.

So what is it?

The agreement will lead to the signing of a treaty that will deal with maritime areas beyond national jurisdiction. Those that do not belong to any state (perhaps that is why the negotiations did not have the publicity they deserved), but belong to the planet, to all of us and especially to our children.

Nearly 200 signatories are committed to protecting 30% of our seas by 2030. The 30% that will be protected, according to our scientists, gives hope that we will have enough oxygen to breathe (50% of oxygen comes from the sea) and create a dam in the impending climate crisis.

Today, only 1.2% of international waters are protected and only 0.8% are designated as “specially protected”. The agreement will provide legal instruments for the creation and management of marine protected areas – reserves for the protection of ocean biodiversity. It will cover environmental assessments to assess the potential damage from commercial activities such as deep sea mining before they begin, as well as commitments by signatories to share ocean resources. There will be restrictions or bans on fishing to limit the loss of marine species, restrictions on shipping lanes. Compromises will also be reached on the global sharing of marine genetic resources and plant and animal biological material in the ocean that provide pharmaceutical and nutritional benefits. This last question has caused the most controversy between the developing and developed worlds.

And what now; We still have a long way to go. States must formally ratify the treaty for it to enter into force immediately. At least 60 states must commit to implementing it for it to become legally binding. But the hardest part comes later: it will take an uphill battle to properly implement and allocate the appropriate resources.

The EU, which played a leading role in reaching an agreement, must move from words to deeds. He promised during the negotiations to pay 820 million euros, but such promises in the past remained on paper.

Nothing will be easy. However, last Saturday we received a message from New York. Humanity can unite to build the future, overcome divisions and accept multilateral mechanisms for the global governance of the planet. This is not enough. I still hope.

Postscript: chatting with a friend about the above, he told me that all this does not matter now, in our Greece, when parents bury their children. I understand it. I have children. But I also want him to understand that what I’m trying to say here has a lot of meaning for our children.

* Ms. Maria Damanaki is a Special Advisor to SYSTEMIQ, the Paradise Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, and a former commissioner in charge of maritime policy and fisheries.