un-ocean-summit-begins-in-france-as-macron-opens-conference

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday opened a high-profile UN Ocean Summit in the country’s city of Nice, where hundreds of dignitaries are likely to attend the event, officials said. World leaders attending the summit have been asked to come up with comprehensive and concrete ideas and funding to tackle what organisers call a global “emergency” facing the neglected seas.

 

The event takes place against the backdrop of the recently escalating plastic pollution treaty, which the global community seeks to impose to minimise the oceanic pollution.

 

The United States, under President Donald Trump, has sidestepped international efforts to regulate deep-sea mining. Some 60 world leaders, including heads of state, are attending the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron opened the high-level summit on Monday, two days after the president said France would restrict bottom trawling in some of its marine protected areas but was criticised for not going far enough.

 

Also read: World leaders convene in France for UN Ocean Summit

 

Speaking to scientists at one of the sideline forums of the UN conference on Sunday, the French president said, “Unfortunately, if we are more or less clear-headed, we are at a time when international science, which still depends a lot on American funding, is withdrawing this funding, and we have a lot of people who are questioning multilateralism and these agencies."

 

"I want us to reach an agreement for the entire planet. Because it's completely crazy. It's completely crazy to go and exploit, to go and drill in a place we don't know. It's frenzied madness,” Macron added.

 

Countries with significant marine ecosystems, particularly those reliant on the health of the deep sea for food security, livelihoods, and biodiversity, face the most significant threats from unregulated deep-sea mining.

 

These include nations in the Pacific region, like Palau, Fiji, and the Federated States of Micronesia, as well as those in the Atlantic with vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems.

 

Additionally, countries like France, Canada, and the UK have voiced concerns about the potential impacts of deep-sea mining and have called for a pause or ban.