A summit for the environment will be held soon in France. After a sea trip on Friday off the Calanques on the third day of his visit to Marseille, Emmanuel Macron announced the holding of this event called “One Ocean” for late 2021 or early 2022 “in Paris or in another city of the Hexagon “.
“France will organize in the coming months what we did for biodiversity at the start of the year, that is to say a“ One Ocean Summit ”which will consist in bringing together scientists, economic actors, regional actors and the United Nations around the table, ”the French Head of State told the press, a few hours before his speech to the World Conservation Congress (IUCN), which opens in the second city. from France on Friday.
Really effective?
This summit will serve, according to Emmanuel Macron, to “launch initiatives in terms of research, in matters of international jurisdiction and to supplement international law which will allow us to protect this space”. Asked about the often criticized effectiveness of such summits, he replied: “Yes, it is effective, because the key is European and international cooperation. One country alone is not efficient, progress must be at least European and on certain major issues it must be global ”.
A United Nations Conference on the Oceans, which was to take place this year before being postponed due to the Covid epidemic, must in this regard be organized in 2022 in Lisbon.
Interested in the scourge of plastics at sea
During an outing off the Calanques, the French president was arrested in the morning on the scourge of plastics at sea and the protection of biodiversity. Back on dry land, the Head of State said he wanted to multiply “by 25 maritime areas with very strong protection”.
Emmanuel Macron is due to open from 5 p.m. the world congress of the largest organization for the protection of nature, the IUCN, which aims to give a boost to the defense of a planet endangered by man. Biodiversity is collapsing, with up to a million animal and plant species threatened with extinction, according to UN experts, who warned in 2019 that nature “is declining faster than ever in human history”.