Invited to a conference on climate change and the safeguarding of the oceans in Brussels, Prince Albert II called for “rallying” to “respond to a distress call” from nature.
The Belgians, and especially the youth of the flat country, are in working order in the face of the climate emergency. In the wake of the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who had called the world’s greatest at the last COP24 and lambasted their immobility in the face of the environmental crisis, thousands of young people regularly converge in the streets of Belgium.
The epicentre of the European boom, Brussels was hosting a high-level conference on Tuesday, organised by the government, on the theme of climate change and the preservation of the oceans.
Prince Albert II was invited to speak at the forum of the Palais d’Egmont before a panel of 500 policy makers and international specialists, including the director of the Scientific Center of Monaco, Denis Allemand.
ACTIVISTS INVITE THEMSELVES TO THE CONFERENCE
A lively and open conference, as proof of the introductory speech of the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, regularly interspersed with slogans “Emergency climate!” sung from the back of the room by activists from the Extinction Rebellion collective.
Welcomed by boos, the Prime Minister gave the exchange to the disruptive. “The climate emergency affects us all, and we hear the signals given by the population, including those we have just seen,” said Charles Michel, advocating for a balance to be struck between economic development and development. climate action, without omitting the social dimension.
A call for the “Green Deal” materialised by the signature, including Monaco, of the Brussels Declaration, a sort of collection of political actions to be taken in the face of climate change and to preserve the oceans.
In the tribune, Prince Albert II used a sporting metaphor as a red thread: “What is played before our eyes is nothing more than a race of speed, in which each rally counts.”
“THIS IS NOT THE LAST RACE OF HUMANITY”
A race full of obstacles but not “lost”. “It is disputed, intense, complex, its outcome is uncertain (…) But, this race, we can influence the result; it is up to us to make sure that it is not the last of humanity and to write the rules.”
The king has, therefore, joined the Belgian Prime Minister on the need to rely on scientific research. “Thanks to the work of the scientific community, we can measure the progress of human degradation and the resilience of the oceans.”
“BUT SCIENCE ALONE CAN NOT DO EVERYTHING”
A blue planet with 90% of the seabed remains unknown in the 21st century. Mysteries from which the light could spring in the face of the uncontrollable world population growth.
“On a planet that we know is limited, whose natural resources will not be enough to meet the desires of the humanity of ten billion or more, it is inevitable that the looks and appetites will turn even more to the ocean.”
The opportunity for the sovereign to recall that Monaco has carried the draft report of the IPCC on the oceans and the cryosphere, whose delivery is expected in September 2019. Or the adoption by the United Nations of a Development Objective Sustainable (ODD14) specific to the oceans and the creation of a Trust Fund between Monaco, France and Tunisia, to finance the development of marine protected areas in the Mediterranean – project supported by the Prince Albert II Foundation.
“But science alone can not do everything,” said Albert II.