By Our Special Correspondent
French President Mr. Emmanuel Macron hosted One Ocean Summit at the port city of Brest in northwestern France from February 9 to 11, 2022, in the hope of encouraging more aggressive policies to protect the world’s oceans. At the Summit, representatives of more than 100 countries from all sea basins and representing more than half the world’s exclusive economic zones stated their determination to preserve the oceans by contributing to the “Brest Commitments for the Oceans”, a non-binding pact that focuses on protecting biodiversity, stopping illegal fishing, and ending plastic pollution.
Mr. Macron opened the One Ocean Summit, saying, “This year 2022 will be decisive. So in Brest today, we need to commit and make firm and clear pledge. I will do this on behalf of France and Europe has a role to play as well. “The Summit brought together 41 States and representatives of civil society and businesses, alongside the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Director-General of UNESCO and the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The leaders at Brest chose to take action to preserve biodiversity, stop over-exploitation of marine resources, fight pollution and mitigate climate change.
The Brest Commitments are:
(i) Protect biodiversity and ocean resources; (ii) Join efforts to face climate change; (iii) End plastic pollution of the oceans; and (iv) Place the ocean at the top of the political agenda. At the Summit, India and France together launched an initiative on the elimination of single-use plastic pollution, which aims to be multilateral. The work of the One Ocean Summit is the starting point of a series of international meetings where the oceans will be central, including the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, in June 2022, and COP27 in Egypt later in 2022.
Scientists warn that the ocean is a significant regulator of the environment but not enough is being done to preserve it. Marine life is expected to suffer as global temperatures rise and underwater ecosystems struggle to adapt to new conditions. Coastal communities across the world could see half of the beaches disappear by the year 2100. In French region of Brittany, the problem is already apparent on outlaying islands which are going to be wiped out.
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