It is a symbol that had raised many hopes: for the first time since 1997, France is hosting, from June 14 to 16, the 20th meeting of the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development (MCSD), a body within which representatives of the 21 countries around the Mediterranean are working to develop a common strategy to meet the environmental challenges of the basin. Symbolic, because France, the first GDP and the first diplomatic power of the group, has a leading role to play as it takes today, for two years, the presidency of the enclosure. Symbolic again, because the consequences of global warming are accelerating: in this “hot spot” of climatic upheaval, temperatures are rising 20% faster than the global average, and 250 million people could find themselves in a situation of “water stress”. just 20 years from now. With cascading consequences that all member countries fear: water scarcity, disruption of harvests and yields, coastal flooding, damage to biodiversity… The Mediterranean is boiling and, if progress exists, it is slow…
Latest: The creation of a Sulfur Oxides and Particulate Emissions Control Area (Seca Zone), adopted last December after years of tough negotiations, will mandate a reduction in sulfur in ships’ fuel by Mediterranean from 2025. “This decision will lead to a reduction in mortality and morbidity since sulfur has health effects up to 200 kilometers inland”, applauds Guillaume Sainteny, president of the blue plan, l one of the regional activity centers of the Mediterranean Action Plan. “It will also lead to less acidification of the sea, improved growth of forests and food crops, as sulfur reduces plant growth, and obviously it will have significant effects on biodiversity. But, while the Mediterranean, a particularly polluted sea, subject to a thousand pressures, is going badly, we must go further… Many participants hoped that France would give the impetus.
She has attempted to do so, on a limited number of subjects. While the Ministry of the Environment traditionally represented France within the Commission, the subjects to be dealt with concerning both water purification and waste management, town planning, marine biodiversity or the management coast, France dispatched to Marseille… its Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville. And, at a time when the body must develop the new Mediterranean strategy for sustainable development, which will apply from 2026, its announcements only focused on this single subject. In detail, France intends to carry out three priorities: preserve marine biodiversity, plan “in an integrated manner” the development of fishing, tourism and renewable energies at sea, and strengthen scientific knowledge and expertise.
While the Posidonia, this gigantic seagrass, the real lung of the Mediterranean, have already lost 34% of their surface, torn away by the anchoring of boats, bottom fishing, pollution or coastal development, France proposes that its promise to protect 100% of seagrass beds by 2030 becomes a goal shared by all… France has recently developed a “low carbon label” for the protection of Posidonia seagrass beds, which will allow companies to buy carbon credits from their restoration – and therefore to finance these operations. “We have already restored more than 80% of our Posidonia, but if we are the only country to regulate our mooring areas, it is useless, the ships will simply go to dock elsewhere,” says Hervé Berville. We need joint work and funding. »
As the development of offshore wind farms must be done, warns the Secretary of State, “in a planned way. It’s a real mapping job to make room for fishermen, regulate cruises…” France, which relies heavily on off-shore wind power to decarbonize its energy mix, plans to deploy several floating parks in the Gulf of Lion . “But almost nothing is ready,” confirms Guillaume Sainteny. “Today we know less than 20% of the seabed, as we know very little about the exact locations of the presence of underwater fauna. Under these conditions, it is therefore extremely difficult to carry out correct impact studies. Hence the need, driven by France, to develop research and knowledge. An essential objective, but which leaves many NGOs unsatisfied.
“With 21 countries and the European Union at hand, France had a golden opportunity to provide diplomatic impetus by announcing actions and opening the debate on crucial issues, in a geographical location that has always been tense when dealing with countries that have a great disparity in resources and political regimes,” commented one participant. First, “marine flooding risks and adaptation to climate change”. Of some fifty UNESCO World Heritage sites located in the Mediterranean basin, 45 are threatened with submersion or erosion due to climate change during the 21st century, from the Kasbah of Algiers to Dubrovnik. , from the Roman site of Leptis Magna in Libya to the French city of Arles… “France, a country of cultural action if ever there was one and seat of Unesco, could it not have seized the opportunity to suggest something about it? asks Guillaume Sainteny.
Because awareness is slow, and the brakes on action are numerous: fragmentation of States, sometimes authoritarian regimes, disparate awakening of ecological consciences… Another tense subject: the call launched at COP27 in 2022 by Emmanuel Macron to ban the deep-sea mining, renewed in Marseilles by Hervé Berville, has little chance of being heard, especially since the hydrocarbon deposits discovered off the coast of Greece or Libya have revived tensions between many countries.
While France will host the United Nations Conference on the Oceans in Nice in 2025, a major event that Emmanuel Macron has made a diplomatic priority, the government has chosen, this week in Marseille, discretion… And has missed, probably, a diplomatic opportunity.