The French President’s declaration on Thursday at the United Nations Conference on the Ocean, pleasantly surprised the NGOs, very mobilized to obtain a moratorium on the quest for mineral resources in the abyss.
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The subject was not registered on the menu for official discussions of the United Nations Conference on the Ocean, which is held in Lisbon until 1 eR July. However, the question of the exploration and exploitation of the great seabed has largely occupied the news of these international meetings until the declaration, short but resounding, of Emmanuel Macron, Thursday June 30: “I think that We must develop a legal framework to stop the mining of the funds on the high seas and not authorize new activities which would endanger [oceanic] ecosystems. “The President of the Republic caused the Pleasant surprise of the environmental defense NGOs, as it seemed to be tempted so far by the quest for cobaltiferous stakes, sulfides and polymetallic nodules in the abyss.
The interview he had with the very respected oceanographer Sylvia Earle was able to play in this position taken not in plenary assembly, but at the Lisbon Oceanarium, in front of a basin where sharks passed and facing An audience of around forty actors in the maritime world. At the opening of the UN meetings, this pioneer, former scientific director at the American Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation Agency (NOAA), stressed that the mining industry is accompanied by environmental impacts everywhere. And wondered: “On firm land, we can at least monitor, see and solve the problems, and minimize the damage. Six thousand meters below the surface, who looks?”
As France has the second largest maritime field in the world and that its president presents himself as a champion of the defense of the marine world – he also proposed to receive the next UN conference on the ocean in 2025, organized jointly with the Costa Rica -, Paris was expected at the turn. Pressure has still mounted a notch in recent days to obtain a moratorium protecting the oceanic depths of industrial lusts. Environmental NGOs – very mobilized – as well as many scientists – more than 600 of them have launched an appeal against this additional potential for the bottom of the seas – are determined to defend deep ecosystems, which remain poorly known. They also argue that it is precisely in its floor that the ocean fulfills an essential function: Storing the CO₂. Is it then appropriate to send collecting robots to lift sediment plumes?
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