General – Ocean Treaty
Mark Heine, CEO at Fugro & Chair of NMT-IRO, states in a post on LinkedIn that he is deeply ashamed that the Netherlands, as a maritime country at heart, did not sign the Ocean Treaty at the UN Ocean Summit in Nice.
The Netherlands is in the top three in the world with the most crucial suppliers of maritime and offshore energy, all working in the oceans, just like Fugro.
Working at sea cannot be done without basic agreements, as the oceans are crucial for the survival of humanity on earth; we live by them.
The oceans provide >50% of the oxygen we breathe. They cover 71% of the globe, contain 97% of the planet’s water. More than 90% of what lives on Earth is in the ocean, of which we only know 25%. The Moon’s terrain is better mapped than the ocean floor, of which only 26% is mapped. The oceans are the largest storage source of CO2 (>90%) and absorb 25-30% of the CO2 we produce as humans. It determines our climate and provides the energy and transports our products and more than 2 billion people rely primarily on protein from fish from the oceans.
Heine: “I am ashamed of the Netherlands which, as a maritime country par excellence, apparently needs too many people to make important and logical decisions. What interest does that…. serve?”
