Diplomatic fiasco and ecological deception at UNOC: BLOOM takes the French government to court

13 June 2025

The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) will have had one merit: it provided a much-needed clarification. While the United Kingdom announced a ban on bottom trawling in half of the English marine protected areas, the French government revealed its true colours by protecting industrial fishing lobbies rather than the ocean and the climate.

At the onset of UNOC, BLOOM exposed the French government’s deceptive ecological strategy in trying to convince the international community it was protecting 4% of its metropolitan waters from bottom-trawling when these zones were in fact… already exempt from this destructive fishing method. In doing so, BLOOM has achieved far more than merely preventing a misleading communication campaign. It has also exposed the government’s moral corruption pact with the lobbies that are destroying the ocean and democracy, the same ones that are harassing BLOOM and its founder, Claire Nouvian, with an unprecedented smear campaign. BLOOM has exposed a veritable state scandal, the shockwaves of which are still reverberating, as revealed by MP Jean-Louis Roumégas’s question to the government at the Legislative Assembly. Caught in her own ecological lies, Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher has made matters worse by trying to kill the messenger: following the line of the lobbies acting against us with mafia-like methods, the Minister started insulting BLOOM in front of journalists, accusing us of lying. With her deception exposed, we now expect an apology from the government and call for Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher to resign for serving the interests of industrial lobbies.

The French government’s attempts to conceal its diplomatic failure have failed: the UNOC discussions concluded 24 hours ahead of schedule because the programme organised by the French State was all empty rhetoric that carefully avoided the two main issues at stake for the ocean and the climate: fossil fuels and industrial fishing. Given France’s ongoing inaction with regard to the destruction of marine ecosystems by trawling, which has been acknowledged by President Emmanuel Macron himself on French television, BLOOM decided to take the French government to court to protect the ocean.

The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) hosted by France will go down in history as a summit of emptiness and shame. While the world is burning, while biodiversity is being wiped out, and while the ocean, the main climate regulator, is at risk of collapse, the ‘negotiations’ at UNOC ended 24 hours ahead of schedule.

Up until the end of this conference, France will have failed to address the abysmal void of its inconsistency.

Confronted with France’s prolonged inaction, BLOOM is taking legal action against the French State

France’s determination to only protect industrial fishers in its metropolitan waters is contributing to the ongoing destruction of our ecosystems. The ecological damage inflicted upon marine ecosystems must be stopped. Regretting that France is doing nothing to this end, BLOOM announces that it will soon take legal action against the French State.

The role of trawling, particularly bottom trawling, in the degradation of marine ecosystems has been acknowledged by President Emmanuel Macron himself on French television, but he has knowingly led France down a path of avoidance, lies and inaction. Nevertheless, the destruction wrought upon marine ecosystems must stop. BLOOM will therefore initiate legal action against the French State to repair and stop the damage caused by trawling. Further culpable inaction by the government will force us to take the matter to the administrative courts.

Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher must resign after causing a national scandal

Emmanuel Macron and the Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, are engaged in a toxic relationship with the industrial fishing lobby and have made lying a way of governing. They have gambled France’s diplomatic credibility in a €60 million poker game. And they have lost.

On 7 June, Emmanuel Macron arrived in Nice with ‘important announcements’, particularly regarding marine protected areas and bans on ‘bottom trawling in particular’. In doing so, the President pretended to be ending decades of criminal inaction in the face of the destruction of metropolitan marine ecosystems and small-scale fishers.

After initial positive reactions from NGOs, which on the morning of 8 June hailed ‘a good first step’ and ‘a little progress’, the Ministry for Ecological Transition published a press kit detailing France’s announcements for the protection of French waters, and metropolitan waters in particular.

But a few hours later, BLOOM uncovered the truth: the 4% of “new” marine areas that were supposed to be strongly protected by the end of 2026, and in which bottom trawling would be banned… were located in areas where bottom trawling was already banned.

The French President and the government had embarked on an organised deception mission.

In the aftermath of these revelations, MP Jean-Louis Roumegas asked a ‘question to the government’ in the Legislative Assembly calling for ‘transparency’ to find out who had designed ‘this map that protects nothing more than what is already protected’. Meanwhile, industrial fishing lobbies explained in the press and in a letter to fishers that, in the “new” areas concerned, ‘bans already exist’ for bottom trawling or ‘are in the process of being introduced’. Panicked by increasingly pressing questions from journalists, Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher and the government joined the lobbyists in defaming BLOOM.

In front of the international community and scientists, journalists, and NGOs from around the world, President Emmanuel Macron and Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher orchestrated a body of lies about supposed progress of marine protection in metropolitan France.

As the conductor of this national scandal, Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher must resign.

The credibility of France’s environmental diplomacy undermined

During this international summit, the French President did everything he could to try to hide the French government’s inaction by turning the spotlight on Polynesia, where the local government announced the creation of the world’s largest marine protected area, and by clinging to UN processes already underway, particularly with regard to the treaty on the high seas (BBNJ).

With the upcoming entry into force of the treaty on the high seas and the announcement of a first Ocean COP in autumn 2026, the President of the Republic claimed a resounding victory, explaining on France 2 that ‘the high seas will no longer be the Far West’. While this treaty will enable the international community to make progress on issues relating to equitable sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources, it must be noted that the governance of the high seas is already covered by dozens of international treaties, and fishing in international waters is already regulated by regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) under the auspices of the FAO. Therefore, the treaty on the high seas does not have the power to respond to the threat posed by industrial fishing. This is all the more so given the fact that 90% of global catches are made in waters under national jurisdictions, a figure which rises up to 99% for catches by bottom trawlers.

Real leadership has therefore come from the United Kingdom, Samoa and the Polynesian government :

• The United Kingdom, which 10 years ago launched a genuine policy to protect the marine environment under the impetus of NGOs such as the Blue Marine Foundation, has announced a ban on bottom trawling in half of its English marine protected areas and the launch of consultations for the ecological transition of the fishing sector and the protection of marine ecosystems from industrial fishing. Secretary of State for the Environment Steve Reed thus gave a real lesson in courage and vision to the European Union, which had initiated an unsuccessful arbitration procedure against the British marine environment protection policy a year ago, and to France, which had threatened ‘retaliatory measures’ when the United Kingdom had announced a ban on bottom trawling in some of its marine protected areas.
• The State of Samoa is also demonstrating its political courage by establishing nine new marine protected areas, achieving 30% protection of waters, equivalent to the size to Vietnam, where fishing is prohibited.
• Finally, the State of Polynesia has announced the creation of a new marine protected area covering more than 5 million km², including 900,000 km² strictly protected.

Beyond these ‘country-by-country’ announcements, this United Nations conference offers a glimpse into the void. The European industrial fishing lobby congratulates itself on the adoption of a toothless final declaration, the Nice Declaration. Although non-binding, what should have marked a historic turning point in response to the climate and ecological catastrophe has been stripped of all ambition and vision, limiting itself to platitudes. The two main causes of the destruction of the ocean, fossil fuels and industrial fishing, remain outside of the scope of the agreement:

• The terms ‘trawling’ and ‘industrial fishing’ are completely absent from the document, and the declaration openly ignores the main levers that would enable the sector to transition to truly social and ecological fishing practices, whether on the issue of public subsidies, the allocation of quotas according to social and environmental criteria, or the ban on destructive fishing techniques in marine protected areas. There is also no mention of the need to protect human rights at sea, despite studies showing serious and systematic abuses in certain fisheries.
• As for climate change and our dependence on fossil fuels, the declaration simply proposes to ‘minimise’ its impacts. This is criminal inaction, given that 145 parliamentarians from 39 countries called on world leaders to support a treaty on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels at the opening of UNOC, and that a +4°C rise in global temperatures could cause the deaths of 4 billion people.

By abruptly announcing the end of negotiations 24 hours in advance, this international conference was confiscated, with exchanges between states, scientists and NGOs cut short, swept aside and annihilated. The contrast is all the more striking for those who participated in the UNOC in Lisbon in 2022, where the conference had been held in a single location, allowing for rich exchanges between all stakeholders. In Nice, however, the French government stifled debate, relegating civil society to a distant location, displaying its bias towards lobbies, but also the illegitimacy of its power barricaded behind ‘silver passes’, effectively hijacking the democratic process and preventing the very principle of debate, the very principle of contradiction, the very principle of democracy.