France’s new big gap between display and reality
Ahead of this COP 16, States were called upon to publish their contributions to meet the objectives set at COP 15 Kunming Montreal, in particular to achieve the objective of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. But, while the challenge now is to transform these major objectives into concrete and binding measures to impose restrictions on industrial players, concretely transform the economy, and in to put an end to the continuous and methodical destruction of living thingsFrance, one of the rare countries to have produced this contributionwants to pose as a good student but nevertheless defends the status quo at all costs.
Indeed, on July 31, 2024, the resigning French government submitted its national objectives. The scientific consensus and international recommendations of the IUCN are unequivocal: a marine area is considered “protected” in which infrastructure and industrial activities, and in particular industrial fishing, are prohibited. The European Commission adopted some of these objectives, publishing its Ocean Action Plan two months after the Kunming-Montreal agreement, which established a very clear road map for banning bottom trawling in areas European protected marine areas.
But, far from aligning with these scientific recommendations and these European objectives, France has published, in its national objectives, the next priority action : « Strengthen the protected areas strategy to reach 10% of surface area under strong protection and properly manage the 30% of protected areas ». There is nothing binding here, nothing that would modify the status quo imposed by the industrial fishing lobby:
- “Strong protection”, an aberration resulting from a decree adopted between the two rounds of the 2002 presidential election, was invented by France to circumvent the European definition of “strict protection” and allow the fishing lobby industrial trawling in marine areas supposed to be protected. All French associations are calling for this “strong protection” to be abandoned, so that France finally aligns itself with European criteria. BLOOM also challenged this decree before the Council of State. A hearing took place on this subject on September 18, 2024. The verdict could come at any time. But, for the resigning government, which had already torpedoed upstream and during COP15 all discussions relating to “strict protection”, everything seems to have to continue at COP16 as if nothing had happened.
- “Good management of the 30% of protected areas”? For two years, the government’s harmful actions have multiplied and demonstrated its determination to undermine any measure going against the interests of industrial fishing.whether it involves tackling the European Commission’s Ocean Action Plan before the National Assembly, the Senate, the Council of the EU; to lie in the media to suggest that industrial fishing is already prohibited in our protected areas; or to threaten retaliation against the United Kingdom when it began to ban bottom trawling in certain marine protected areas hosting vulnerable ecosystems.
Unsurprisingly, France is preparing to once again reduce global environmental ambition and reiterate its position as the voice of industrial interests within an agreement precisely intended to protect the general interest against the destruction inflicted on the biosphere by human activities. This is all the more damaging as in international negotiations on biodiversity,a France represents the world’s leading maritime powerthe United States, which nevertheless has a maritime territory larger than that of France, has not ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
From 2022 to 2024: France’s anti-ecological feats of arms
In December 2022 in Montreal, during the COP15 on biological diversity, the international community took a giant step forward by setting major objectives for the protection of nature, such as protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. But France stood out in the negotiations for its hypocrisy by vigorously opposing the notion of “protection” being defined in the text of the agreement, thus allowing industrial activities to take place in so-called “protected” marine areas and for protection to be a concept of paper, without any effect on ecosystems, biodiversity and the climate. Ahead of COP15, France was also firmly opposed to the objective of 10% “strict” protection being included on the Conference agenda and debated.
Over the past two years, the French government has done everything possible to undermine the achievement of relevant international objectives commensurate with the urgency:
COP 16: will France finally stop protecting trawlers rather than humanity?
The French imposture no longer fools anyone and is even being singled out by the biggest international magazines. France, which is hosting the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in June 2025, has no other choice but to bring its actions into compliance with European law and finally live up to the standards. environmental emergency. The Barnier government still has the possibility of reviewing the roadmap published this summer by the resigning government so as not to miss its date with history. Rather than being the one who “should have” or “could have acted”, the government must live up to its responsibilities.
This COP is an opportunity for France to finally announce the ban on trawling in its so-called “protected” marine areas and to put an end to the exceptional regime that it has created and which it seeks to impose on the rest of the world to protect a handful of ecocidal industrialists.
The transformation of international objectives into concrete measures that impose restrictions on industrial players is a necessity that has become vital. The most eminent climatologists say it bluntly: “ we are on the brink of an irreversible climate catastrophe” and, to avoid the worst, “ we need ambitious, transformative change “. The windows for action to concretely transform the economy and support destructive activities towards their end or their conversion are closing.
Time is running out.
To go further: The urgency of thinking about the transition of fishing
The lack of ambition regarding so-called “protected” marine areas and France’s sabotage in this area is unfortunately not the only problem with the current negotiations. In the post-war period, the myth of “sustainable management” of fisheries appeared as the magic recipe for regulating the exploitation of marine resources. This productivist management model, based on incomplete and erroneous science, has only evolved marginally since then, and has largely contributed to the decline of the ocean, giving license to destructive fishing as our consumption of fish has increased.
Since the 1950s, politicians and industry have worked together to generalize this failing model of fisheries management, favoring their short-term geopolitical and economic interests, to the detriment of the resilience of the ocean. The IPBES also noted in 2019 that fishing was, over the last fifty years, the main factor in the decline of marine biodiversity, highlighting the urgency of radically rethinking our relationship with the ocean, not only in terms of tools for protecting and restoring ecosystems, but also regarding the way in which it is exploited.
The widespread use of “sustainable” fishing labels, most of which mislead consumers into believing they are making nature-friendly and guilt-free choices, only compounds the problem. In reality, these labels serve corporate interests more than ocean protection and food security, because they certify large-scale destructive fisheries while depleting the ocean.
The global framework for biodiversity established during COP15 in Kunming-Montreal in 2022 is quite problematic in this sense, since it explicitly refers to the “Marine Stewardship Council” label, which certifies nearly 20% of global catches each year. year, despite years of denunciation of the charade that this label represents by numerous scientists and NGOs (see in particular our two summaries on the subject).
The institutionalization of these misleading labels as a “binding sustainable fishing objective” represents one of the major problems of the current Kunming-Montreal framework, on which France remains silentincapable of adopting an ecosystem vision of the marine environment and getting rid of a model that has led to the collapse of marine biodiversity.
A few weeks ago, a group of international experts on the ocean gave States the keys to action: 11 golden rules for truly social and ecological fishing. Their study, published in a prestigious scientific journal, establishes a founding framework to guide the negotiations which are opening, and to enable a transition of the fishing sector to be initiated in order to achieve international objectives in terms of climate protection, biodiversity, and food security.
(1) Climate crisis: humanity has “opened the gates of hell”, warns the UN Secretary General
Image credit: Convention on Biological Diversity website
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