At the European Commission’s high-level conference on energy transition in Brussels on Friday 16 June, the NGOs Oceana, ClientEarth and Our Fish called on the EU to set ambitious targets for achieving resilient, carbon-neutral fishing by 2050.
This conference launched the new ‘Energy Transition Partnership’ in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, announced on 21 February in the communication on this subject (see EUROPE 13126/1).
This partnership will have to draw up a roadmap for the energy transition towards climate neutrality by 2050. It brings together representatives from the fishing and aquaculture sectors, as well as from research institutes, public authorities, the shipbuilding industry and port authorities.
For these NGOs, the fisheries sector's dependence on fossil fuels and its economic vulnerability to energy price rises underline “the need to accelerate measures to reduce this dependence and move towards clean energy”.
The roadmap resulting from this Partnership must have substance in terms of tackling all the climate impacts of fishing” said Vera Coelho, from Oceana. In her view, this means reducing direct fuel emissions and protecting blue carbon (sensitive habitats) from physical disturbance by bottom-towed fishing gear. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)