Prof. Deidun (in his capacity as member of the Mission Board for Healthy Oceans) participating during the session chaired by Pascal Lamy
Prof. Alan Deidun from the Department of Geosciences , Faculty of Science and Malta’s Ocean Ambassador, recently participated as a speaker within the Paris Peace Forum in his capacity as member of the EU’s Mission Board for a Healthy Ocean.
French President Macron opened the Forum and thirty heads-of-state participated.
An ad hoc session within this high-profile Forum was dedicated to the Ocean. The session was chaired by former World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy and saw the interaction of a number of Ocean Mission Board members, including Prof. Deidun, with hundreds of Forum participants.
This is an excerpt of Prof. Deidun’s intervention at the Paris Peace Forum:
Arvid Pardo, widely known as the ‘father of the Constitution of the Ocean’, in a landmark 3-hour speech at the UN’s General Assembly in 1967, referred for the first time to the Ocean as the ‘common heritage of mankind.’ ....... My vision for this Mission is for it to showcase what the Ocean can deliver for broader society, as a catalyst for positive change rather than simply a recipient of human impacts. The Ocean can provide solutions to some of our compelling societal challenges, through for example, the provision of food, freshwater and energy, the regulation of climate and by acting as an untapped medicine chest. We need to fire the public’s imagination about the Ocean, by taking the Ocean into their living rooms and making them aware of the intrinsic role played by the Ocean in their everyday life (e.g. through the provision of atmospheric oxygen).
In cognisance of today’s societal most compelling challenges, five highly relevant thematics have been chosen for this first round of Horizon Europe Missions. These include Cancer, Soil Health and Food, Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, Adaptation to Climate Change and Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters.
Fifteen experts populate each Mission Board, having been selected following a rigorous and highly-competitive selection process, representing a panoply of individual backgrounds, experience and nationalities.
Prof. Deidun is a member of the Oceans Mission Board, along with fourteen other experts with diverse backgrounds, including former MEPs, research institute directors, former DG MARE Directors, former WWF Directors, fishers’ lobbyists, NGO representatives and even freshwater specialists.