UN Ocean Conference in Nice
The representatives of around 130 countries, including numerous heads of state and government, are currently meeting in Nice in the south of France to discuss ways to protect the world's oceans. The key topics of the Ocean Conference are climate change, overfishing and pollution. European commentators pin their hopes on the event.
We need solutions
The Nice summit must breathe new life into efforts to protect the world's oceans, Público stresses:
“The average surface temperature of the oceans is rising by 0.26 degrees per decade, at a rate four times faster than in 1980. Protecting biodiversity, which is threatened by this rise in temperature and by human activity, is a key issue in Nice. Not least because almost two-thirds of the world's oceans are not under any government's jurisdiction. The High Seas Treaty, which seeks to regulate these marine areas, is one of the important documents on the agenda.”
Marine protection is self-protection
Writing in L'Opinion, Christophe Clergeau, member of the European Parliament S&D Group, underscores our responsibility as humans:
“The future of the oceans obviously depends neither on a conference nor on a pact, but first and foremost on the behaviour of each and every one of us. We must stop treating the sea as if it were a giant rubbish dump for our plastic waste and dangerous substances such as PFAS, pesticides and other chemicals. ... I hope that the UN Ocean Conference will be a powerful moment of awareness, mobilisation and concrete commitments on the part of states and civil societies. The oceans provide us with oxygen, regulate the climate and are a tremendous reservoir of biodiversity. We depend on them, so let's save them to save ourselves.”