Oceans cover 71% of the surface of the Earth and they play a major role in the way our planet works. They produce 50% of the available oxygen, regulate the climate, store CO 2 and are an essential source of wealth for mankind. 40% of the world's population lives less than 100 kilometres from the sea coast and depends directly on the oceans for its food, jobs and development.
The oceans are the single most important regulator of the climate, but today they are under threat from pollution, 80% of which comes from the land. Today, World Oceans Day, organised by the IOC/UNESCO and the Ocean and Climate Platform 2015, is an attempt to raise awareness amongst all stakeholders of the need to place the oceans at the heart of climate negotiations, on the occasion of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, and to take action to protect this resource.
'Oceans are essential to our well-being and the future of our planet. All governments and all societies must unite their efforts to protect them', declared Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO.
As the leading partner of this event, SUEZ environnement confirms its involvement in the fight against the pollution of our seas and coasts and is committing to support the actions taken by the IOC/UNESCO 1 in the long term. Moreover, the Group is supporting the initiatives taken by four NGOs engaged in the protection of marine ecosystems on the five continents: the expedition to the North (May-June) and South (October-November) Atlantic headed by 7ème Continent, the expedition in the Mediterranean (July-August) by Expédition MED, the actions taken by Goodplanet to raise awareness amongst the general public and the aquatic waste monitoring project on the European coasts conducted by Surfrider Foundation Europe, which SUEZ environnement has been partnering since 2006.
As a leading player in the sustainable management of resources, SUEZ environnement develops solutions on every continent to preserve water resources and to recycle and reuse waste, both of which help to protect our oceans. SUEZ environnement proposes concrete solutions to limit the pollution of oceans at the earliest possible stage. These solutions aim to:

- Anticipate pollution from the lands, in particular at wastewater treatment plants level. Ecoseastem, which will be developed at the Nice Haliotis wastewater treatment plant, is the first research project that aims to characterise the pollution caused by plastic microfibres 2 , to assess their impact on the natural ecosystem and to identify the technologies to treat this type of pollution.

- Protect the coastline thanks to the technologies developed to improve the quality of bathing water and protect and enrich the biodiversity of our coastlines. In Casablanca, 24km of coastline have been rehabilitated and the beaches have been returned to the residents thanks to the East coast anti-pollution system, which was inaugurated by the King of Morocco.

- Preserver the biodiversity of marine ecosystems thanks to technologies used to treat the ballast water in ships - all the ships in the world will have to use these technologies.

To continue reading this noodl, please get the original version here.

distributed by