ATHENS: The European Union will spend 3.5 billion euros ($3.71 billion) to guard the ocean and promote sustainability via a collection of initiatives this yr, the EU’s prime setting official stated on Tuesday. The 40 commitments vary from preventing marine air pollution to supporting sustainable fisheries and investments within the so-called blue financial system – sustainable use of marine and freshwater sources for financial exercise. The commitments have been introduced in the course of the annual “Our Ocean” convention held in Athens this week and attended by about 120 nations. “The ocean is part of who we are, and it is our shared responsibility,” stated EU Commissioner for Setting, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius. The commitments embody supporting 14 investments and one reform in sustainable fisheries in Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Portugal price about 1.9 billion euros, and 980 million euros beneath the EU’s Restoration and Resilience Facility (RRF) for use in Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy and Spain’s to assist 4 investments and two reforms to battle marine air pollution. Different initiatives are directed to serving to African nations develop their blue financial system. Greater than 400 new commitments amounting to $10 billion might be introduced in the course of the convention, a Greek authorities official informed Reuters on Monday, talking on situation of anonymity. The European Union’s Copernicus Local weather Change Service stated final month that ocean temperatures hit a report excessive in February, based on knowledge that goes again to 1979. Overfishing and plastic air pollution are additionally main threats to oceans. The convention has mobilised greater than 2,160 commitments price roughly $130 billion since its launch in 2014.
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