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Advances in underwater mining, protected areas or corals. These are the agreements of the Lisbon Summit

2022-07-02T03:39:37.594Z


142 countries approve a non-binding political declaration to protect the oceans and make a call to "be more ambitious" in safeguarding the environment


A woman looks out over the ocean in California;

in the background, an oil platform and a ship. Allen J. Schaben (Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag)

The Second Conference of the UN Oceans, which has been held over the last five days in Lisbon and which has been attended by more than 7,000 people from 142 countries, has given birth to a long-awaited non-binding political declaration for the states that includes a handful of commitments in areas such as underwater mining, the protection of international waters or the safeguarding of corals.

Along with this unanimous approval, the countries have jointly launched a call to be more committed to saving the seas.

"This declaration is a sign of the spirit of the United Nations, but we want to be more ambitious," assured the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, before officially closing the meeting.

Despite these words,

On this last day, the United Nations has called on rich countries to advance in the contribution of 100,000 million dollars committed to guarantee sustainable development and has warned that climate change is leading the world to "a road to hell".

"We are waiting for the 100,000 million promised by the rich countries, we need that 100,000 million", claimed the special envoy for the UN Oceans, Peter Thomson.

“Right now, we are on a road to hell, it is the road we are on,” Thomson warned.

They need "billions of dollars" because they want renewable energy in the high seas, investment in sustainable aquaculture and a sanitation system infrastructure that prevents contamination of the lagoons, he has continued.

These are some of the agreements of the appointment:

Limitation of underwater mining.

Deep sea mining does not have a single mention in the Conference declaration, but the issue has hovered over the event, where several countries have demanded a moratorium on these operations until there is sufficient scientific knowledge about their impacts.

Palau launched an alliance of countries to request this extension, with the collaboration of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and immediately joined by the ocean states Fiji and Samoa.

They hope that others will also join.

France positioned itself against advancing against underwater mining: "We must create a legal framework that stops mining on the high seas and not allow new activities that endanger these ecosystems," defended the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

And Chile endorsed in plenary its request for a moratorium on the mining of the seabed.

Protect international waters.

Protecting the biodiversity of international waters when the negotiations within the UN scheduled for August are approaching to try to achieve a binding treaty has also been one of the keys to the Lisbon meeting.

The High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People that aspires to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030, launched in 2021 by Costa Rica, France and the United Kingdom, reached 100 member countries, as announced in Lisbon.

Several countries announced successes or commitments in this regard: Costa Rica, Colombia and Panama have already reached the goal, and the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Portugal have promised to do so by 2030. Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Moore Foundation, the Canadian International Conservation Fund and six others partners committed to a collective donation of 1,000 million dollars (960 million euros) for initiatives that contribute to the 30% goal.

Save the corals.

25% of marine life depends on coral reefs, and investments to protect them were announced in Lisbon.

Australia will dedicate 1,200 million dollars (1,152 million euros) in the next ten years to preserve the Great Barrier Reef.

And the president of the Global Funds for Coral Reefs (GFCR, for its acronym in English), Chuck Cooper, announced a joint contribution from Bloomberg Philantrophy and Builders Vision for 18 million dollars (17.3 million euros).

Against acidification.

The International Alliance Against Ocean Acidification, a voluntary coalition of governments and non-governmental organizations representing nearly 300 million people and more than 360,000 kilometers of coastline, has gained a powerful new member: the United States.

Sustainable and regulated fishing.

Support for sustainable and regulated fishing, as well as for small fishermen, has been another recurring theme.

After achieving an agreement in June at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to prohibit subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, its director general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, appealed to the countries in Lisbon to formalize their accession to the agreement.

Spain guaranteed that it will continue to exercise "leadership at the international level" in the fight against illegal fishing.

And there were also some announcements regarding fisheries: Thailand will put a moratorium on new commercial trawling licenses and is preparing a budget of 40 million dollars (about 38 million euros) for a decommissioning program.

Work of the Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong installed in Lisbon to denounce the plastics that we pour into the sea.

LUDOVIC MARIN (AFP)

Other investments.

The summit also served to announce other blue investments, such as that of the Development Bank of Latin America-CAF, which will allocate 1,250 million dollars (1,200 million euros) to finance projects to preserve and promote marine and coastal ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean in the next five years.

In addition, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will launch "Ocean Promise", to promote lines of action that compensate for the losses caused by the incorrect management of the oceans, which are equivalent to one billion dollars a year.

"Blue march for the climate" held this Thursday in Lisbon next to the Altice Arena.

MIGUEL RIOPA (AFP)

NGO criticism

Non-governmental organizations present in the Portuguese capital have shown their criticism of the summit.

This Friday, Greenpeace activists have protested in front of the Altice Arena in Lisbon, where the meeting takes place, against the "little commitment" of the countries to protect the oceans and to demand the approval of the Global Ocean Treaty.

With banners showing sharks “killed by political inaction” and with messages like “

Strong Ocean Treaty now

”, environmentalists have made a name for themselves outside the venue.

For the person in charge of the Greenpeace Oceans campaign, Pilar Marcos, the leaders "are not fulfilling their promise to protect the oceans", since while the governments continue to say "beautiful words" about the protection of the oceans, millions of sharks die each year by ships of the European Union.

“The world must see through their hypocrisy”, she added.

In that regard, she recalls how leaders like EU Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius have repeatedly promised to deliver an ambitious Global Ocean Treaty and protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.

Meanwhile, Ignacio Fresco, political adviser to Oceana, believes that the summit ends with a feeling of "lack of ambition" in a context of the need for "greater transparency" internationally and a global agreement for the oceans similar to the climate agreement.

According to Fresco, "there is a lack of commitment, of a roadmap and of management of the oceans" on the part of the attending countries, and a need for international commitments to be translated into "real actions that encompass all the problems" to which they facing the oceans, which account for 70% of the planet's surface.

The representative of the NGO calls for a "global agreement for the oceans" to recognize their importance in the "survival" of humanity, and claims the role of the seas in the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO₂), as providers of nutrients and of biodiversity and as main climate regulators.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-07-02

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