Environmental organizations point out that all prospecting on the high seas is a risk for local fauna

Environmental organizations point out that all prospecting on the high seas is a risk for local fauna


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In his opinion, the Moroccan state "has plenty of solar capacity to supply itself with energy if it wanted and, instead, invests in new gas and oil"

EFE Madrid

Any prospecting on the high seas poses a "risk" for the local fauna, some of the main environmental organizations in Spain have indicated, consulted by Efe before the announcement of the discovery of an oil deposit in Morocco, near the Canary Islands.

The NGOs have thus responded to the announcement this Wednesday by the British company Oil & Gas of an oil deposit with a potential of
1 billion barrels off the coast of Agadir, in the south of Morocco, less than 100 kilometers from the Canary archipelago.

All environmental organizations have agreed that stopping burning fuels is "unavoidable" to keep the planet's temperature below 1.5 degrees.

The head of fossil fuels at Greenpeace, Francisco del Pozo, has referred to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published a few weeks ago, in which it is urged to “stop burning new fossil fuels”.

Therefore, according to del Pozo,
"If we want to keep the planet's temperature below one and a half degrees, it is unavoidable to stop burning fossil fuels."

ditch fossil fuels

These new wells, which take a number of years to develop, are designed so that
“have a useful life of between ten and fifteen years”says this expert, who points out that "after all, it is going against what science tells us, which is to stop burning fossil fuels, regardless of whether it is in Morocco or in Spain."

“We are concerned that what these investments do is put sticks in the wheels of others that are needed for decarbonizationthat is to say, everything that these companies invest in these new wells is not invested, as in the case of Morocco, in renewable energies”, he lamented.

In your opinion,
the Moroccan state "has plenty of solar capacity to supply itself with energy if it wanted to and instead invests in new gas and oil."

A “risk” for the local fauna

All prospecting on the high seas, he points out, poses a risk to the local fauna and any discharge, depending on the current, "would affect Morocco or the coasts of the Canary Islands", and "we are all equally concerned because, in the end, a spill is suffered by the people, the fishermen, the tourism…”

“We must all be on alert and we must remember that Morocco also has climate commitments because we have all signed the Paris Agreement and Morocco is within the COP system”, he remembered from the Well.

The spokeswoman for Ecologists in Action Fuerteventura, Sofía Menéndez, told Efe that oil "has to stay where it is due to climate change" and has advocated "betting on decrease".

Menéndez stressed that the area between the Sahara and the Canary Islands has to become a fauna sanctuary because it is one of the areas on the planet "richest in fishing and in unique species."

Besides,
"The islands live off desalinated water and at the time there was any problem of an oil slick it could pose a danger to get water for Lanzarote, Fuerteventura or Gran Canaria", Menendez stated.

The coordinator of Marine Protected Areas of WWF Spain, Óscar Esparza, has pointed out that the "most imminent" problem is surely that they are going to have to do some kind of seismic prospecting to try to determine where and how much hydrocarbons there are to carry out a second phase, which would already be the extraction of oil.

Canary Islands, "hot spot" in the cetacean reserve

A first phase of seismic prospecting, he clarified, would already generate risks on the
populations of cetaceans and the Canary Islands is one of the "hot spots" of biodiversity, "very important" worldwide for these animals, where there are more than 30 described species, and this type of prospecting can affect the populations.

Likewise, there are other possible conditions and risks as a consequence of the accidents that can be caused in a second phase, which would already be the prospecting itself of the deposit pockets, which can cause accidents "as serious" as the one that occurred in the Gulf from Mexico years ago, explained Esparza.

In the event of a spill accident, he said, it would have "very serious" consequences not only for cetacean populations, but for all biodiversity and also for the population and for the human activities that are carried out on the island, aggravated by the prevailing trade winds in the area that would move all the crude to the eastern islands and that, surely, would spread.

“This situation worries us because we think that the future trend should be to make an ecological transition and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons”, concluded Esparza.



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