PARIS --
World leaders met on France's Atlantic coast Friday to debate defending the planet's oceans from threats comparable to overfishing and plastic air pollution, and discovering fairer methods to handle the seas.
The One Ocean Summit comes as European authorities are investigating a mass fish dump within the Bay of Biscay that environmental activists name an instance of abuses by big trawlers that disrupt undersea ecosystems.
Oceans cowl greater than 70% of the planet's floor. Scientists estimate that fifty% to 80% of all life on earth is discovered underneath the ocean floor and not less than 50% of the oxygen on the planet comes from the oceans, the bulk being produced by plankton.
French President Emmanuel Macron initiated the three-day summit within the port metropolis of Brest with the help of the United Nations.
"At the moment, we're going to make commitments," Macron mentioned in his opening speech. "I'm satisfied they will assist strengthen useful actions."
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, whose nation will host the UN's annual local weather summit this 12 months, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, U.S. Particular Envoy for Local weather John Kerry and a number of other different African and European leaders attended the occasion in individual. Others had been to participate by way of video messages.
Kerry mentioned "the urgency of the plight inside which all of us discover ourselves" deserves consideration.
"There are large-scale, extraordinary operations that go on each single day at sea which can be indistinguishable from main felony enterprises on land," he mentioned. "They use appalling practices of labour, cash laundering and fraud to destroy the nice efforts of fisher individuals world wide who're attempting to reside by the principles."
Criminality is estimated to account for about one-fifth of fishing globally.
Illegal fisheries are "depleting the fish shares of the world, actually dragging nets that we outlawed a number of years in the past ... and throwing away two-thirds of what they catch," Kerry mentioned. "We create marine protected areas. However we do not implement them."
Costa Rica, France and Britain launched an intergovernmental environmental group in 2019 to set a goal of defending not less than 30% of land and sea by 2030. The Excessive Ambition Coalition for Nature and Folks now consists of 84 international locations.
France met its coalition commitments by extending protected areas within the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Macron introduced Friday.
As well as, 14 nations taking part within the Brest summit dedicated to strengthen the battle in opposition to unlawful fishing by way of totally different actions together with higher controlling actions in ports and at sea.
Additionally in Brest, the UN cultural company UNESCO introduced that not less than 80% of the world's seabed will likely be mapped by 2030, in comparison with 20% at the moment -- which is able to assist enhance scientific information.
America and France in a joint assertion on Friday acknowledged "the transboundary points of plastic air pollution and the significance of curbing it at its supply." They mentioned they help launching negotiations on the upcoming UN Atmosphere Meeting to achieve a world settlement addressing this difficulty.
The Brest summit was additionally meant to organize upcoming worldwide occasions, together with the UN Ocean Convention scheduled in June in Lisbon. Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa referred to as it a "success" as a result of it confirmed contributors have the desire to take motion.
"I am swimming on a regular basis within the Atlantic, and I give it some thought," De Sousa mentioned in his closing speech. "It is a new path that's opening up."
However environmental group Greenpeace voiced remorse that the summit ended up with political statements "which stay imprecise on many points."
"The statements go into the fitting route, however it's now essential to go additional: we predict concrete measures," Francois Chartier, answerable for oceans at Greenpeace France, mentioned.
"The well being of our oceans is in danger," warned Nicolas Imbert, govt director of the non-governmental group Inexperienced Cross. "We're already late, so we'd like a shock with the intention to have robust new commitments and in addition with the intention to meet previous commitments."
France's President Emmanuel Macron, heart, poses with heads of states for a household image earlier than the Hight Stage Phase session of the One Ocean Summit, in Brest, Brittany, Friday Feb. 11, 2022.
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