French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday slammed the withdrawal of climate funding by the US, saying it was time to reach an agreement for the entire planet.
Macron said this on the eve of the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference and amid rising pressure for nations to turn decades of promises into real protection for the sea.
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, where we have a lot of people who are questioning multilateralism and these agencies".
The US is not attending the key UN ocean summit in Nice, following the Trump administration's effective withdrawal from all climate-related agreements and its withdrawal of funding upon assuming office in January.
On Sunday, Macron called on nations to commit to a moratorium on deep-sea exploitation.
"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."
Commitment to a moratorium on oceans coming?
Host to the third edition of the UN Ocean Conference, Macron said around 30 heads of state and government have committed to a moratorium on deep-sea exploitation.
"There are already about 30 of us who have agreed. We're not going to give up. It's completely crazy to go and exploit, to go and drill in a place we don't know. It's frenzied madness," he stressed.
More than 50 world leaders are expected to attend the UN conference this week, with a major focus of the weeklong summit being a push to ratify the High Seas Treaty, which would enable conservation in international waters.
Thousands of delegates, including scientists and environmental advocates, began to arrive in Nice on Sunday for the conference, which aims to debate plans to confront growing threats to the ocean and the need to transform pledges into action.
The UN has called the threats a global emergency facing the world’s oceans as they confront rising temperatures, plastic pollution choking marine life, and relentless overexploitation of fish and other resources.
