A long-overdue conference on how to restore the faltering health of the world’s oceans got underway in Lisbon on Monday. The head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, said that the planet’s seas are in crisis.
“Today we are facing what I would call an ocean emergency,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told thousands of politicians, experts and advocates at the opening plenary session, describing how the seas have been hit by change. climate and pollution.
Humanity depends on the health of the oceans. They generate 50% of the oxygen we breathe and provide essential protein and nutrients for billions of people every day.
The oceans, which cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, have also softened the impact of climate change on life on earth, but at a huge price.
By absorbing around a quarter of CO2 pollution, even as emissions have increased by half in the last 60 years, seawater has turned acidic, threatening aquatic food chains and the ability of marine ecosystems to survive. absorb carbon.
In addition, by absorbing more than 90% of the excess heat caused by global warming, massive marine heat waves have been generated that are destroying precious coral reefs, vital for the survival of thousands of species, and expanding dead zones. devoid of oxygen.
“We have only just begun to understand the extent to which climate change is going to wreak havoc on the health of the oceans,” said Charlotte de Fontaubert, global head of the World Bank’s blue economy.
To make matters worse, there is an endless stream of pollution, including the amount of plastic in a garbage truck every minute, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
And according to a recent report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), if current trends continue, annual plastic waste will nearly triple to a billion tonnes by 2060.
wild fish populations
Microplastics, now found in Arctic ice and in fish in the deepest trenches of the ocean, are estimated to kill more than a million seabirds and more than 100,000 marine mammals every year.
The solutions being considered range from recycling to the global limits of plastic production.
World fisheries will also be in the spotlight during the five-day UN Ocean Conference, initially scheduled for April 2020 and co-hosted by Portugal and Kenya.
“At least a third of wild fish stocks are overexploited and less than 10% of the ocean is protected,” Kathryn Matthews, chief scientist at the US NGO Oceana, told AFP.
“Destructive and illegal fishing boats operate with impunity in many coastal and high seas waters.”
Part of the blame lies with the nearly $35 billion in grants. Experts say that the small steps taken last week by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reduce aid to industry will hardly make a dent.
The conference will also push for a moratorium on deep-sea mining of rare metals needed for the EV battery-building boom; Scientists say that little-known deep-sea ecosystems are fragile and can take decades or more to recover once disturbed.
Another major theme will be “blue food,” the new watchword to ensure that marine harvests from all sources – wild-caught and farmed – are sustainable and socially responsible.
protected areas
Aquaculture yields – from salmon and tuna to shellfish and seaweed – have been growing 3 percent a year for decades and are on track to surpass wild marine harvests that peaked in the 1990s. with a production of approximately 100 million tons per year.
The Lisbon meeting will be attended by ministers and even some heads of state, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, but it is not a formal negotiating session.
However, participants will push for a strong ocean agenda at two key summits later this year: the UN climate talks at COP27 in Egypt in November, and the UN biodiversity negotiations at COP15, which have been long overdue and have recently moved from China to Montreal.
The oceans are already at the center of a draft treaty aimed at halting what many scientists fear will be the first “mass extinction” event in 65 million years. A key provision would designate 30% of the planet’s land and oceans as protected areas.
But preparatory negotiations in Nairobi ended in deadlock. “The agreement runs the risk of failing due to the question of financing,” the head of environmental diplomacy at WWF France told AFP.
When it comes to climate change, the focus will be on carbon sequestration, that is, increasing the oceans’ ability to absorb CO2, either by enhancing natural sinks, such as mangroves, or through geoengineering plans.
At the same time, scientists warn, drastic reductions in greenhouse gases are necessary to restore the health of the oceans.
with AFP
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