“We are choking”, said Benoit Payan, the socialist mayor of Marseille, bluntly in a petition shared on the town hall’s website. Already signed almost 15,000 times by the inhabitants of Marseille, the text asks in particular “prohibition of stopovers for the most polluting ships during pollution peaks”.
“In Marseille we breathe pollution and we see it”, underlines the text submitted to the Marseillaises and Marseillais. It must be said that the coastal city borders one of the most polluted seas in the world. Hence the urgency to legislate at the national level, but also to act on a global scale to contain these emissions, which are as harmful to the planet as they are to humans.
“While discussions are underway at the international level to regulate the emission levels of ships, We, Marseillaises and Marseillais, demand that international rules change and protect our seas and cities much better. These decisions should lead to dare strict and ambitious standards, to protect our health.“
Petition submitted by the town hall of Marseille
The urgency to act
In order to protect the Mediterranean Sea and its inhabitants, the text appeals to both the French government and that of all countries of the Mediterranean. Because only at the end of a common struggle can real improvements be seen.
Specifically, the petition sent jointly to the French government and the International Maritime Organization aims to: prohibit stopovers by polluting ships during peak pollution periods. As the International Maritime Organization (IMO) prepares to: investigate regulations to limit sulfur emissions from ships in the Mediterranean, the petition asks: “that these discussions become concrete as soon as possible”.
The text also emphasizes the importance “that the reduction of all other pollutant emissions, in particular nitrogen oxides, is put on the international agenda without delay”. Finally, the town hall emphasizes the urgency of the situation, taking the example of the heat wave that the inhabitants of Marseille suffered when faced with a “concentration of ozone and air pollutants well above acceptable thresholds”.
Would you like to place your signature at the bottom of the petition? This is where it happens.