UN summit to tackle oceans 'emergency'

A GLOBAL summit on the dire state of the oceans kicked off yesterday in France, with calls to ban bottom trawling and bolster protections for the world’s overexploited marine areas.

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World leaders attending the UN Ocean Conference in Nice have been told to come up with concrete ideas - and money - to tackle what organisers call a global “emergency” facing the neglected seas.

The appeal for unity comes as nations tussle over a global plastics pollution treaty, and the US sidesteps international efforts to regulate deep-sea mining.

On the eve of the summit, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that leaders must act now: “The planet can no longer tolerate broken promises”.