FXTM Joins Fight for a Blue Economy with Lewis Pugh Alliance

A study at the beginning of 2018 revealed frightening results and confirmed what experts have been saying for years; if plastic pollution continues at today’s rate, the oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish by the year 2050. Thanks in part to the international popularity of the BBC’s acclaimed Blue Planet II, governments and the general public are finally waking up to the real dangers facing our oceans. FXTM Senior Staff Writer Nikola Grozdanovic goes into more detail below.

Earlier in April, British PM Theresa May pledged to set aside £61.4 million for tackling ocean pollution in alliance with other Commonwealth Countries. More recently, five G7 countries agreed on an Ocean Plastics Charter with the US and Japan remain the only two G7 nations who have not officially made the pledge. In this current climate, other industries are starting to take notice of the gravity of the situation and do their bit to support the cause. In the forex industry, for example, one of the leading online brokers, FXTM, is joining forces with a renowned athlete and activist as a way to draw attention to the perils our seas are facing.

Lewis Pugh has built his 30-year career around challenging and record-breaking long-distance swims. In the swimming community, he has become a legend, most notably as the man who swam the freezing waters of the North Pole in just a pair of Speedos. Pugh swims in fragile marine ecosystems to encourage governments to take legislative action to secure the health of our oceans. This year, Pugh will be taking on his greatest challenge yet – “The Long Swim”, a grueling, world-first, 560km swim along the length of the English Channel – to call attention to the fact that only a mere 7 square kilometers of the Channel is fully Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). FXTM will be his Lead Partner during the challenge, helping him and The Lewis Pugh Foundation raise ocean awareness.

The Long Swim is the start of a much larger campaign for Lewis Pugh entitled Action for Oceans, who aims to do a series of similar challenges over the next 10 years, in an effort to persuade governments to designate 30% of the world’s oceans as MPAs by 2030. As the man who played a pivotal role in securing the world’s largest MPA to date (The Ross Sea in 2016), no one is better positioned than Lewis Pugh to see the successful completion of such a campaign.

Nicholas Defteras, CEO of FXTM, has officially commented on this new partnership: “Most of the world is finally turning their attention to the very important goal of preserving our oceans, which cover 70% of our planet’s surface. FXTM has always taken corporate social responsibility to heart, and thanks to our partnership with such a renowned activist as Lewis Pugh, we are stepping up ourselves to do what we can in the name of this truly essential cause. It’s never too late to make a difference and we are equally excited and honored to be the lead supporters of Lewis’ great challenge.”

This one-of-a-kind swim takes place this summer, with a scheduled start on the 12^th of July at Land’s End, and an expected finish on the 29^th of August at Dover. Tune in to Sky News every day to follow Lewis’ journey along the Channel, and keep up to date on social media with the hashtag #FXTMGoesBlue.

To learn more about Lewis Pugh, The Long Swim and the #FXTMGoesBlue initiative, please visit FXTM website.