French President Emmanuel Macron launched the UN Maritime Conference with Nice on Monday in an urgent call for multilateral action to save the ocean.
“The first answer is multilateralism,” Macron said. “The deep seas are not on sale, Greenland is not on sale, and there is no Antarctica,” he added in a veiled response to US President Donald Trump’s expansionist statement since taking office in January.
“The oceans are boiling while the earth is warming,” the French president said.
“Climate like biodiversity is not a matter of opinion, it’s a matter of scientifically established facts,” he added.
Macron noted that 50 countries submitted ratifications “in the past few hours” before the UN conference was officially opened, Macron confirmed that it will be ratified by enough countries at the summit and put into effect.