In 2022, several important international meetings will be held around the oceans.

The Brest summit and the commitments that will be made there "will make it possible to consolidate useful actions and an essential international agenda for the year 2022", declared the French president.

The political leaders who have succeeded in Brest, present or on video, have committed themselves to several issues, including progress towards global treaties for the protection of the high seas and against plastic pollution.

Other leaders intervened by video messages.

"If we give ourselves the means, we can make historic decisions, it has to start today, in Brest", hammered Emmanuel Macron.

Main progress, Ursula von der Leyen announced from Brest the launch of a coalition comprising the 27 Member States of the EU and 13 other countries to conclude an ambitious treaty intended to protect the high seas, which is not under the jurisdiction of no state.

Negotiations for such a treaty have been underway under the aegis of the UN since 2018, but discussions were interrupted by the Covid-19 epidemic.

The fourth and theoretically final negotiating session is scheduled for March in New York.

"We are very close but we must give impetus to conclude it this year", insisted the European leader.

Plastic pollution of the oceans Kenan AUGEARD AFP

"This is an important and providential commitment," welcomed Peggy Kalas of the High Seas Alliance, which brings together several NGOs.

"Blue washing"

The United States has announced its support for the launch of negotiations under the aegis of the UN for an international agreement against plastic pollution.

The United States thus joins a dozen countries and the whole of the European Union.

The launch of these negotiations will be examined at the 5th Assembly of the United Nations for the environment at the end of February, in order to reach an international agreement against the pollution caused by the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastics produced since the 1950s.

Sharing the oceans Sylvie HUSSON AFP

"We need an agreement that ensures the highest level of ambition possible," claimed John Kerry.

Other topics were discussed, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the maritime sector, which is not affected by the Paris Climate Agreement.

Or, as demanded by Emmanuel Macron, the elimination of public subsidies encouraging overfishing and illegal fishing, a subject under discussion at the World Trade Organization.

France took advantage of the summit to formalize the extension of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands Nature Reserve (TAAF), in the southern Indian Ocean, home to large populations of marine mammals and seabirds.

For NGOs, France, the second largest maritime power in the world, is not up to the task of properly protecting its seas and oceans.

About 150 people gathered Friday morning in Brest at the call of Greenpeace and the association Pleine mer to denounce "a blue washing operation".

"We have a President Macron who announces that he is the champion of the oceans and who behind does nothing, even defends extremely destructive industrial activities", lamented to AFP François Chartier, of Greenpeace France.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen makes a statement at the Ocean Summit on February 11, 2022 in Brest Ludovic MARIN POOL/AFP

France Nature Environnement (FNE) on Thursday submitted a petition signed by half a million people to denounce the "massacre of common dolphins" off the French coast, caught in fishing gear.

© 2022 AFP