Déplacement de S.A.S. le Prince Albert II à Tel-Aviv (Israël) (12 juin 2018).
S.A.S. le Prince Albert II se rend le 12 juin 2018 à Tel-Aviv, en Israël, afin de recevoir lors d’une cérémonie un doctorat Honoris Causa de l’université de Tel-Aviv.
L’avion princier se pose dans la nuit du 12 juin à l’aéroport de Tel-Aviv. S.A.S. le Prince est accompagné de S.E. M. Bernard Fautrier, ministre plénipotentiaire, vice-président et administrateur délégué de la Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco, de M. David Tomatis, conseiller à Son cabinet, et du lieutenant-colonel Michaël Benichou, Son aide de camp. Ils sont accueillis par Mme Agnès Goldman, délégué général de l’association « Les amis francophones de l’université de Tel-Aviv », et par M. Meron Reuven, chef du protocole du ministère des affaires étrangères israéliennes.
Le lendemain matin, le Souverain et Sa délégation sont conduits à l’université de Tel-Aviv (UTA). Le Pr Joseph Klafter, président de l’université, L’accueille à l’entrée du bâtiment et Le guide jusqu’à son bureau, où il effectue une présentation de l’université, en présence du Pr Yaron Oz, recteur de l’UTA, du Pr Amos Elad, vice-président recherche et développement et du Pr François Heilbronn, président des « Amis français de l’UTA ».
Une table ronde se tient ensuite sur le rôle de l’UTA en tant que vivier de start-ups. À cette occasion, S.A.S. le Prince rencontre M. Shlomo Nimrodi, président de RAMOT, la société de transfert de technologies de l’université, et M. Nimrod Cohen, directeur de UTA Venture, le fonds de capital-risque établi par l’université en avril 2018 pour les entreprises montées par ses anciens étudiants.
Puis, le Souverain se rend à l’école de cinéma Steve Tisch, où Il est accueilli par M. Yosef Raz, directeur. Il rencontre des étudiants qui Lui présentent dans le laboratoire de média numérique leurs projets de réalité virtuelle. Il assiste ensuite à la projection d’un documentaire à la mémoire de Sa mère la princesse Grace, réalisé par une étudiante de l’école.
Le Souverain et Sa délégation déjeunent ensuite en présence de M. Ilan Beck, consul de Monaco à Tel‑Aviv, du Pr Amos Elad, du Pr François Heilbronn et de six étudiants.
Dans l’après-midi, S.A.S. le Prince visite le bâtiment Porter qui abrite l’école d’études environnementales de l’UTA, en présence du Pr Colin Price, directeur. Il s’agit de la première école d’études supérieures israélienne à se concentrer sur la recherche, l’enseignement et la transmission de connaissances en matière d’environnement. Elle figure parmi les quatorze bâtiments les plus écologiques au monde. Au cours de la visite, le Souverain échange avec le Pr Yossi Rosenwaks, doyen du département des sciences de l’ingénieur, et le Pr Daniel Chaimovitz, doyen du département des sciences de la vie, avec lesquels sont notamment abordés les thèmes de la protection de la planète et du développement durable.
Le Souverain visite ensuite le musée Steinhard d’histoire naturelle de l’UTA, centre national israélien pour les études sur la biodiversité, sous la houlette du Pr Tamar Dayan, directrice du musée. L’édifice renferme plus de cinq millions de spécimens d’animaux retraçant l’histoire de la région depuis un milliard et demi d’années.
Cette journée de visites se termine dans la soirée par une cérémonie à l’école d’études environnementales Porter, au cours de laquelle le Pr Jacob A. Frenkel, président du conseil d’administration, et le Pr Joseph Klafter prononcent une allocution avant de remettre à S.A.S. le Prince un doctorat Honoris Causa, en reconnaissance de Son engagement pour la préservation de l’environnement.
Le Souverain prononce le discours suivant :
« Dear President, Prof. Klafter,
Dear Prof. Frenkel,
Distinguished guests,
Dear Friends,
Ladies & Gentlemen,
erev tov.
(Good evening).
toda raba al à milim à hamot.
(Thank you for your kind words).
Ani meod sameah liot can à erev be universitat Tel Aviv.
(I am delighted to be here this evening at the University of Tel Aviv).
I would like to say how much I enjoy to be in your beautiful city of, which for me embodies a form of international openness and a particularly valuable intellectual melting pot.
I am most honored to be receiving the Honorary Doctorate from your prestigious University.
I am also thrilled to be able to address you today, to speak about the convictions that drive me, that guide my actions and that have, indirectly, brought me here to you.
All the undertakings you have mentioned, all the initiatives I have been involved in, all the hopes that inspire me, are part of one and only objective.
Whether in the areas of environment or peace, sports or culture, I am pursuing one single goal: to contribute, at my level, through the responsibilities I exercise, to making our world less vulnerable.
Because it is an immense and urgent task, I did not wait to become a Doctor to act - but I am sure it will help me!
The truth is that we must all stand together against challenges that concern the entire planet, its development model, its equilibrium and its future for the upcoming decades and centuries. The contribution of all of us is needed.
To achieve such goal, I believe we must bring about a change that goes well beyond a series of technical, legislative and economic adjustments. We have to bring about a radical change within ourselves.
It is our entire relationship with other living species and with nature that must be questioned.
It is also necessary to rethink our relationship with other human beings, those with whom we are living alongside and sharing the same planet, no matter how great the distance that separates us.
We have the duty, the responsibility to change this relationship towards future generations, to whom we must bequeath a preserved environment.
This awareness of the need to preserve and share nature sometimes seems to be a revolution. Yet, it is the continuation of a long historical narrative. A historical narrative that can for the most part, I believe, be found in the Jewish tradition, in the Torah texts and in the many exegeses that have been written on them.
When Deuteronomy asks us not to cut down the tree whose fruits we eat, and when Leviticus forbids us to kill an animal and her offspring on the same day, the same mindfulness of nature and its continuity manifests itself.
When Isaiah prophesies, for the end of time, the peaceful coexistence of species, the same hope of sharing is expressed.
And when the climate punished man’s wrongdoing with the Flood, the same threats emerge.
I believe the needs of the environment should resonate with particular force throughout this land of Israel.
And that is why I am so pleased to be able to share with you the philosophical and spiritual path that guides me, when I fight for the environment, for our children and grandchildren, for a different relationship between man and nature.
Through this fight for the preservation of our environment, and through all the actions I undertake for peace, it is actually a hope for humanity that drives me.
This is an essential point, which I would like to dwell on for a few moments.
Our world - and I think this country is more aware of it than others - is facing many crises, some of which bring their share of daily tragedies.
Faced with armed conflict and famines, with the tragic events often associated with migration, with poverty and disease, the fate of a few animal species or water pollution, or a few degrees of warming may seem secondary considerations - and even trivial.
However, I believe that this view of things, if of course it arises from simple assessments, is an optical illusion. Not only because it focuses on the surface of phenomena and ignores the chain of cause and effect. But also because it overlooks the long-term aspect, and those sometimes far worse tragedies to which we are exposed by damage to the environment.
Consider climate change, for example.
Of course, we are only talking about a few degrees, barely noticeable in the main - to the point where some people, on the basis of a false impression, claim that this warming does not exist, that it is not the consequence of human activities.
But these few degrees measured on a global scale equate, locally, to more significant variations. They are directly weakening certain ecosystems and threatening animal and plant species. A number of species are disappearing, others are moving and invading new regions, changing the equilibriums and driving out species that until then used to thrive peacefully there.
These few degrees also cause droughts that can have tragic consequences. They transform entire regions inhospitable to man, triggering sometimes major population movements.
These so-called insignificant few degrees are also causing millions of cubic meters of ice to melt. The melting of this ice disrupts the ecosystems into which the water flows, sometimes ravaging human habitats along the way. It causes the permafrost to thaw, which in turn releases greenhouses gases into the atmosphere, which speeds up global warming. It contributes to a rise in sea level.
This rise in sea level destroys the shores. It changes marine currents and the balance of many ecosystems. And these changes in their turn affect the whole of the meteorological system, resulting in an increasing number of extreme phenomena, particularly tempests and floods.
Consider, also, the massive loss of biodiversity which we are witnessing today.
May I remind you that our era is very widely regarded a prelude to the sixth great wave of species extinction.
According to the IUCN, whose work has for 70 years been an authority on these issues, 28% of species are currently in danger of extinction. These include 42% of amphibians, 26% of mammals, 33% of reef-building corals, 34% of conifers. At this rate, many species will have disappeared before man has even been able to list them.
The cause of this disaster can again be found in human activities, exploiting and destroying natural resources without control, creating pollution that destroys wilderness areas.
This is true on land, where it is estimated that 10% of species have disappeared over the course of the last 20 years. However, it is also true of the sea, where human activities are growing at an ever-faster rate, and often out of all regulations.
We, who live by the Mediterranean, which is at present one of the most endangered seas in the world, are, unfortunately, perfectly well aware of these threats. May I remind you that our sea is home to 8% of the planet’s marine species and 18% of its marine flora, all this in less than 1% of its surface area and barely two-thousandths of the volume of its ocean waters.
We also know the danger posed to all humanity by the increasingly likely scenario of the disappearance of marine species. At present, more than three billion of our contemporaries find their main sources of proteins in the sea, and the maritime fishing industry provides direct or indirect employment for more than 200 million people across the planet.
Finally, consider, amongst the tragedies to which damage to the environment exposes us, those linked to water, to irresponsible water management, to water pollution and to the decline in water reserves.
This, clearly, is a factor that is much more directly understood by us, the more we realize our immediate, daily dependence on water. This dependency goes beyond the glass of fresh water that we need when the temperature is high, or when we speak for a little too long!
The issue of access to water resources and their use clearly goes much deeper.
It is an economic issue, which is well understood here, since Israel’s agricultural strategies have been reoriented on the basis of their water costs, notably around the virtual water concept.
This concept helps us understand the water cost of our various production processes - agricultural, of course, but also industrial. And it taught us that it took 1,500 liters of water to produce 1kg of wheat, 9,000 liters of water to produce a chicken, and 15,000 liters of water for 1kg of beef.
More surprisingly, we also learned that it took 32 liters to manufacture one electronic chip, and... 7 liters of water to manufacture a one-liter plastic bottle!
Water is thus an indicator of a wider dysfunction in the economy.
The issue of water also brings sanitation issues. According to the WHO, 2.1 billion people, or 30% of the world population, still have no access to domestic drinking water supplies, and 4.5 billion, or 60%, have no securely managed sanitation services.
Every day, 25,000 people die from water-related diseases - cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid, for example - and half of these are children. In total, it is estimated that more than eight million people die every year from water-related issues.
These issues, moreover, are compounded by additional problems linked to inequality in access to resources. We see this in the Mediterranean, where we have barely 3% of freshwater resources but 7% of the world’s population, and where the northern shore has three-quarters of the available water. In the Near East, of course, we know the importance of water access in many territorial conflicts.
These few examples, illustrating the three areas - climate, biodiversity and water - in which my Foundation principally takes action, prove quite clearly that environmental issues, even though they may sometimes seem less urgent or less serious than other issues, are decisive for our future.
That is why I engaged many years ago, in devoting myself and my actions to these issues, and especially since my accession as head of state, 13 years ago.
In doing so I was continuing a long tradition in my country.
This tradition was first instituted by my great-great-grandfather, Prince Albert I, one of the founders of modern oceanography, who worked towards a better understanding and better protection of the oceans. My father, Prince Rainier III, followed this tradition, notably through preservation initiatives for the Mediterranean waters.
It has become one of the priorities of my action, both on a national level and in my international undertakings.
In order to be more effective, more flexible, more pertinent, I supplemented my action with a Foundation, which simplifies the forging of partnerships, and above all allows me to take action in a greater variety of ways, whether at the local or the international level.
Because the crucial point is to undertake everything possible to counteract the bleak outlook I was speaking of. It is crucial to act, because solutions do exist.
I will not list here all the initiatives we are taking, nor all the tools that are available today to those who wish to contribute to saving our planet. But, since I am underlining the need to act, I should like to stress one point that seems to me essential, which is the need to act collaboratively.
I am referring to the need to change our way of thinking, in order to radically modify our development model, our production methods, our consumption patterns, our modes of transport, and, more broadly, the way we organize our world.
Therefore, the question of collaboration is at the heart of my action, by creating bridges that allow different talents, different skills and different energies to act together.
Acting together means firstly, for me, acting with the scientific community, to whom we owe our capacity to understand the issues involved, and our capacity to devise appropriate solutions.
Whether in Monaco, where we have very high-level research centers and hold many scientific events, or whether through the partnerships forged by my Foundation, this collaboration with researchers is, for me, the starting point.
I would therefore like to say very sincerely, you who belong to this great family of scientists, how grateful and how indebted we are to you.
You bear a responsibility now that unity is to be our ongoing objective.
Without science, this unity - this universality, even - would not come to fruition. Only you can set out the facts objectively and irrefutably. Only you can speak the same language to everyone - the language of truth and reason. Only you can propose a global vision of the challenges and solutions, beyond optical illusions and personal egoisms.
For these reasons, I shall always stand by your side, faithful, committed and grateful.
Science has a unique ability to prevail upon everyone, and we can see some wonderful examples in the work of multilateral colleges such as the IPCC or the IPBES, which inform the United Nations and which I believe make a direct contribution to the major advances we are witnessing today.
That is why I support their work, and why I, along with my Foundation, have notably worked to bring about the production by the IPCC of a specific report on the climate, oceans and cryosphere. This project, launched one and a half years ago in Monaco, will make it possible to take better account of the situation and the resources of the oceans when considering and taking action on climate change.
This is an example of the bridges we must build, in order to work together. Through enabling our policy decision-makers to leverage scientific expertise, these organizations make it possible to implement universal solutions, which alone can resolve the issues confronting us.
On this universal basis it is indeed possible to bring stakeholders on board, and to build the bridges I was speaking of.
On the flipside of climate change is the issue of energy transition, which requires active collaboration between many actors.
Multilateral organizations must be mobilized, in particular the UN, and we have seen the extent of their commitment, especially since the 2015 Paris Summit. The negotiations that have taken place amongst its members are vital.
Governments, for their part, must scale up their legislation and develop infrastructures for the production of renewable energies. That is what we are implementing in Monaco, with marine heat pumps and development of the use of solar power.
Alongside governments, businesses, through their agility and their capacity for innovation, must play a vital role in inventing new solutions and scaling up usage. That is why we are working with the private sector on the development of clean mobility, in Monaco, but also on the broader international scene, through, for instance, the fantastic showcase provided by the Formula E championship.
NGOs must also be actors for change, working with populations as we do with local stakeholders in the developing countries, in order to promote new energy solutions.
Civil societies, which are at present aware of the danger and want to correct it, must also be mobilized. That is why the communication campaigns and awareness-raising activities that we carry out are of particular importance. The same spirit of cooperation must guide us on the matter of biodiversity.
It must prevail at multilateral forums, where we are currently undertaking vital work, under the aegis of the UN, on high-seas biodiversity, which is still not fully understood and is already under threat.
It must prevail at the local level too, with the establishment of protection areas, which can be transboundary, such as the marine areas that we have developed with France and Italy, or that we support in the Mediterranean via a dedicated Trust Fund, set up with France and Tunisia.
It must also prevail with private stakeholders, who must get involved to put an end to the practices that are most destructive to biodiversity.
I am thinking of the fight against pollution, especially plastic pollution, which necessitates the development of alternative solutions, in addition to the prohibition measures that must be taken by governments, as we have done in Monaco.
I am of course thinking of the crucial issue of pollinating insects and bees in particular, which requires us to develop alternative farming methods. It is, unfortunately, a complex dossier, but one for which we are increasingly garnering support from producers who are aware of the impasse of farming in a way that destroys these vital helpers and, in doing so, ultimately condemns itself.
I also refer to fishing, which must be practised in a responsible manner, because the continuity of our resources depends upon it.
This, for instance, was understood by the various partners we mobilized several years ago when we had to save the Mediterranean bluefin tuna.
The catering industry took its share of the responsibility, for example in Monaco where they voluntarily stopped serving that particular fish.
Governments and international organizations made a commitment, despite some strong reservations. In the end, the fishermen themselves understood that it was not in their interests to see the disappearance of this iconic fish which is important to the whole of the food chain.
This same issue of collaborative action, plotting bridges between skills, levels of action and mobilized resources, should also prevail for the issue of water.
It means taking an approach that is regional and not strictly local, capable of seeing and managing problems in the catchment area, as advocated by the World Water Council, which I support, through integrated water resources management.
It means taking into consideration the full range of consumption practices, and the economic issues in particular, through giving some thought to virtual water, which I was speaking about.
It means tailored strategies for economic development, conceived with a view on the long term.
And it means mobilizing consumers, who want to, and should, join in this great adventure.
Because, and I will stop here, we are indeed in the middle of a great adventure.
An adventure specific to our century and our inalienable responsibility towards future generations.
An adventure with the potential to bring major progress, both in our political understanding of the issues and in the roll-out of a new economic growth.
An adventure that should be shared and should summon people together across the diversity of their situations.
An adventure that brings us together today, and once again gives me an opportunity to experience remarkable encounters, which for me are a source of encouragement.
I welcome them, just as today I receive the honor you bestow upon me, hearing in my head the words of Aharon Appelfed, that great voice who sadly died recently: "When you meet a person, it is a sign that you were to cross that person’s path, a sign that you will receive from that person something you were missing. These encounters must not be overlooked. Each one of them holds the promise of a discovery."
I would therefore like to thank you not only for this prestigious distinction, but also for these discoveries, for the experiences it has inspired during my stay in your country, and for the extra determination it has given me - all the things I was missing to borrow the words of Aharon Appelfed.
toda raba.
(Thank you). ».
La soirée s’achève par un dîner rassemblant une centaine de convives.
Le lendemain matin, l’avion princier décolle pour un retour en Principauté.