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Lisbon — When Those who believe that the COVID-19 blockade will close most of the world and that pandemics may be a turning point for global action against climate change, with images of animals roaming the streets of cities and lower levels of air pollution. There was also.
However, these hopes are fading, the UN Special Envoy for the Ocean said on Monday that a meeting to evaluate progress in the protection of marine life on the open sea began in Lisbon.
With the COVID restrictions lifted, the natural "green and blue rebound" turned out to be a temporary phenomenon, the envoy Peter Thomson told Reuters.
"We're back to the old way of stuffing planes and cluttering the streets with plastic pollution ... let's face it."
However, he was convinced that after the unsuccessful agreement in March, UN member states would reach an agreement this year on a treaty to protect the ocean from exploitation.
Thomson also said that the United Nations Maritime Conference, which attracts about 7,000 people from more than 100 countries, will make tourism more sustainable, decarbonize the polluted shipping industry, and replace plastics. He said he hopes to facilitate discussions on how to find it.
The 11 million tonnes of plastic that Thomson called the planetary plague flows into the ocean every year. According to scientific research, it could triple by 2040, unless the production and use of disposable containers is reduced.
Work on the legally binding plastic pollution treaty needs to be completed by the end of 2024, Thomson said.
On one of the nearby city's beaches, protesters from the climate activist group Ocean Rebellion staged an exhibition dressed as a mermaid caught in plastic and fishing nets.
"Since I was born, 50% of marine life has died, and ... if those who have the power to act now do not die, it will continue," said activist Sophie Miller. I told Reuters TV.
Thomson said new challenges have arisen, such as deep-sea mining, which sucks potato-sized rocks containing cobalt, nickel and other metals from the Pacific floor. He believes that regulations will soon emerge to counter it.
Greenpeace is "nearly impossible" to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 without a valid treaty, and the minimum scientists to enable recovery. Warns that it is necessary.
"We are confident we will get there," Thomson said. (Report by Catalina Demony, Miguel Pereira, Pedro Nunes, edited by Andrei Khalip and John Stonestreet, Lisbon)
