The world conference “our ocean” in Panama took place in parallel with discussions carried out in the UN in the hope of leading to an international treaty.
mo12345lemonde With AFP
Nearly $ 20 billion (approximately 18.8 billion euros) of funds dedicated to ocean protection was promised on Friday March 3, at the World Conference our Ocean in Panama, announced the host country , after the closing of Reunion.
This total includes a commitment of $ 6 billion from the United States, announced Thursday by the White House envoy for climate, John Kerry. “We undertake many different initiatives to have the greatest possible impact,” Kerry, to the correspondents of the foreign press in Panama on Friday.
“The reason for the increase is that we have adopted the law on the reduction of inflation in the United States, which has invested a lot of money in the fight against the climate crisis, and the result is that we have greater capacity to undertake initiatives that will have a climate impact, “he said.
five billion devoted to the fight against climate change
The press release from the United States Embassy in Panama does not specify the period during which these disbursements will be made, but stresses that the amount corresponds to “more than double” of what the United States had promised during The our Ocean conference of 2022.
Nearly $ 5 billion in this American envelope will be intended to fight climate change, including just over half to “develop the resilience of marine resources and coastal communities” affected, said in a press release American embassy in Panama.
The United States will also devote $ 665 million to promote sustainable fishing, 200 million to combat pollution, 73 million for “blue economy” programs (the sea equivalent of the green economy) and 11 million to protected maritime areas.
“voluntary commitments” but not agree
For his part, the window ‘European Union (EU) announced that it was committed this year to 816.5 million euros for seas protection projects. On this envelope, 320 million euros will be devoted to research on marine biodiversity and to counter the impact of climate change on maritime circles, while 250 million euros will go to the Sentinel-1 Satellite-1c program for monitoring Effects of climate change and in particular the melting of arctic ice.
The participants in the our Ocean conference announce voluntary “commitments” but do not vote and do not agree. Some 600 delegates of governments, companies and NGOs had gathered since Thursday morning in Panama to debate the framework to give to the “blue economy” for sustainable exploitation and the protection of seas and oceans.
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During a meeting preceding the summit, representatives of the EU, the United States, Latin America and the Pacific Islands have Called the negotiators in New York of the Treaty on the high seas, in discussion for more than fifteen years at the UN, to succeed as quickly as possible.