Whether this involves climate change and GHG emission levels or the governance of the high seas and area beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), the protection of marine biodiversity or international conventions on maritime safety, the path to international agreement appears increasingly complex and painstaking. This appears to be all the more so since, as the Global Ocean Commission (GOC, 2014) recently concluded, ocean governance is plagued by a patchwork of sectorally focused agencies and institutions hampered by weak compliance and lack of enforcement. Moreover, as Chapter 9 highlights, the situation is exacerbated by a lack of legal clarity about economic activities in the oceans beyond national jurisdiction as well as the potential of increased competition between states for access to resources in the seas. These include, for example: mention of the ocean in the Paris COP21 agreement, the establishment of ocean-related Sustainable Development Goals (in particular SDG 14), and agreement of member states at the United Nations to develop a legally-binding instrument to conserve and sustainably use marine biological diversity of areas beyond their national borders.