Emmanuel Macron launched a “Paris call for the poles and glaciers” on Friday, November 10, at the conclusion of a summit on the issue organized in the French capital. The Head of State notably announced the construction of a French ship as part of a polar research effort in which France will invest one billion euros “by 2030”.
Based between Nouméa, in New Caledonia, and Hobart, in Australia, this vessel capable of navigating in the ice which blocks the polar seas and which can reach several meters in thickness, will be shared between the Western Pacific and Antarctica. It will bear the name of former Prime Minister Michel Rocard, who was the first French ambassador for the poles, said the French president.
Mr. Macron also assured that “the Paris call for the poles and glaciers will make it possible to consolidate (…) several series of actions”. Among them, “the mobilization of a coalition” led by the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, which must “bring together cities, island states, large coastal regions mobilized in the face of rising sea levels”.
In the introduction, the Head of State mentioned the degradation of glaciers as “a threat that is already very present and which is accelerating”: “When we talk about the question of our cryosphere, we are talking about a transformation which is in progress. course, which already threatens millions and which will threaten billions of inhabitants on the planet. » In 2100, “more than half of the world’s 200,000 glaciers will have disappeared with an impact on at least a billion inhabitants, deprived of water resources,” he recalled.
