Macron meets Hulot in Marseille ahead of the World Conservation Congress

FRED TANNEAU via Getty Images

BIODIVERSITY – Homecoming. Emmanuel Macron and the former Minister of Ecology Nicolas hulot are going to visit the creeks of Marseille, whose biodiversity is threatened, before going together to the World Conservation Congress (IUCN) Friday September 3.

“Tomorrow, I will bring to Emmanuel Macron the urgency to act for biodiversity and the opportunity represented by the PFUE in order to make structuring decisions,” confirmed the former minister on Twitter this Thursday, September 2.

“Status quo announced on the CAP, provisional return of neonicotinoids, failure on glyphosate… biodiversity is absent from the government’s priorities”, can we read in a press release published on the Nicolas Hulot Foundation website on the occasion of this meeting and the Nature Congress.

Appointed Minister of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition in May 2017, after the election of Emmanuel Macron, Nicolas Hulot announced his resignation at the end of August 2018 on France Inter, deploring an excessive influence of the lobbies on the Elysee Palace.

The two men will then go during the day to the World Conservation Congress, organized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Ministry of Ecological Transition which will last until September 11.

This event is held once every four years at Parc Chanot, in the 8th arrondissement of Marseille.

“Make nature a top priority”

“Our common goal is to put nature at the top of international priorities – because our destinies are intrinsically linked, planet, climate, nature and human communities,” wrote Emmanuel Macron in a presentation of the event.

Twice postponed because of the pandemic, the congress is in fact part of an important round of negotiations leading to the COP15 biodiversity which will be held in China in April 2022. At this conference, the international community must adopt a text aimed at to “live in harmony with nature” by 2050, with intermediate objectives for 2030.

This event is held once every four years at Parc Chanot, in the 8th arrondissement of Marseille.

Time is running out, because despite the urgency, the States have not kept their commitments to reverse the trend in terms of biodiversity over the decade 2010-2020.

And without being a real negotiating space, the IUCN Congress will play an important role in this process, bringing together a wide range of actors – governments, NGOs, civil society, businesses – and setting priorities.

Threatened species

As of Saturday, the update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species will also allow us to take stock of the continued destruction of our environment.

IUCN is also due to vote on a series of motions at the congress. In particular a final declaration which should focus on “the place of nature in post-Covid economic recovery plans”, “an ambitious new global biodiversity strategy” accompanied by a “global action plan for species ”, And“ the contribution of nature to the fight against climate change, ”said Sébastien Moncorps, director of IUCN France, to AFP.

The question of health in the relationship between humans and nature will also be an essential point, while the hypothesis of transmission of the Covid-19 virus from wildlife to humans is central to explaining the origin. of the pandemic.

New to this edition, indigenous peoples’ organizations, whose role is increasingly recognized to protect nature, will be able to vote. But the participation of developing countries will be reduced, notably for lack of vaccines.

Another novelty, the congress, which is being held for the first time in France since the creation of the IUCN in 1948, will include a section dedicated to the general public.

Because if public policies are struggling to evolve, “public awareness is much greater” than at the last congress in 2016, as well as that of the business world, says Gavin Edwards of WWF International.

See also on The HuffPost: When Philippe tells how he learns of Hulot’s resignation