A global summit on the dire state of the oceans commenced in France yesterday, with calls to ban bottom trawling and bolster protections for the world’s overexploited marine areas.
World leaders attending the UN Ocean Conference in Nice have been told to come up with concrete ideas — and money — to tackle what organizers call a global “emergency” facing the neglected seas.
The appeal for unity comes as nations tussle over a global plastics pollution treaty and the US sidesteps international efforts to regulate deep-sea mining.
Photo: AFP
On the eve of the summit, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that leaders must act now.
“The planet can no longer tolerate broken promises,” he said.
A wave of new commitments is expected in Nice, where about 60 heads of state and government joined thousands of business leaders, scientists and environmental activists.
“Never in the history of humanity have we brought together so many people for the oceans,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday before hosting leaders for an official dinner.
The UK was expected to unveil a partial ban on bottom trawling in half of its marine protected areas, putting the destructive fishing method squarely on the summit agenda.
Bottom trawling sees huge fishing nets dragged across the ocean floor, a process shockingly captured in a documentary by British naturalist David Attenborough.
Greenpeace welcomed the UK announcement on trawling, but said in a statement it was “long overdue.”
Macron on Saturday said that France would restrict trawling in some of its marine protected areas, but was criticized by environmental groups for not going far enough.
French Minister of Ecological Transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher told reporters on Sunday that other nations would make “important announcements” about the creation of new marine protected areas.
Samoa led the way, announcing that 30 percent of its national waters would be under protection with the creation of nine marine parks.
Just 8 percent of global oceans are designated for marine conservation, despite a globally agreed target to achieve 30 percent coverage by 2030, but even fewer are considered truly protected, as some nations impose next to no rules on what is forbidden in marine zones, or lack the finance to enforce any rules.
Nations faced calls to cough up the missing finance for ocean protection, which is the least funded of all the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals.
Small island nations were expected in numbers at the summit, to demand money and political support to combat rising seas, marine trash and the plunder of fish stocks.
The summit would not produce a legally binding agreement at its close like a climate COP or treaty negotiation, but diplomats and other observers said it could mark a much-needed turning point in global ocean conservation if leaders rose to the occasion.
“The UN Ocean Conference gives us all an opportunity to turn words into bold and ambitious action,” said Enric Sala, founder of Pristine Seas, an ocean conservation group.
Another summit priority would be inching toward the numbers required to ratify a global treaty on harmful fishing subsidies, and another on protecting the high seas beyond national control.
France is also spearheading a push for a moratorium on deep-sea mining ahead of a meeting of the International Seabed Authority next month.
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