Nina Droff 06:25, Feb 09, 2022, amended at 06:26, Feb 09, 2022

The One Ocean Summit, an international summit on the protection of the oceans, opens this Wednesday in Brest.

Some 400 experts and several heads of state will participate, including Emmanuel Macron.

The WWF organization calls for a focus on the problem of plastic pollution.

On the occasion of the One Ocean Summit, on the protection of the oceans, the WWF organization is sounding the alarm.

Each year, between 19 and 23 million tonnes of plastic are released into the oceans.

Ludovic Frère Escoffier, head of the Life of the Oceans program for the WWF organization, denounces a more than alarming situation, which is not likely to improve in the years to come since plastic production could double by 2040. 

"All marine species are affected by plastic pollution. From plankton to whales. Some seas like the Mediterranean are reaching saturation, there is an urgent need to act," he explains on Europe 1. 

The need for concrete measures

The NGO therefore calls on the representatives of the various States who will be present at the summit to make concrete and ambitious commitments to protect the biodiversity of the oceans: "The ideal measures would be the progressive elimination of certain single-use plastics, the banning of micro -plastics, and the establishment of standards to have more recyclable products."

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The implementation of such measures could, according to him, prepare the ground for a major common treaty against the proliferation of plastic.

He hopes this will be the case at the next meeting on protecting the oceans at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, in early March.