UN Environment Assembly wraps up
The fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly concluded last week in Nairobi, with a strong commitment to speed up actions toward protecting the planet’s degraded resources.
Despite kicking off under the shadow of the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people, including at least 21 UN staff, the five-days event, concluded on last Friday, witnessed successful discussions and commitments by the delegates to a more sustainable path.
Siim Kiisler, president of the assembly, said 23 resolutions and three decisions were adopted at the conclusion of the assembly.
Joyce Msuya, acting executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said the week was productive, with governments agreeing on the way forward on a range of issues, from marine litter, microplastics, gender and environment, to sustainable consumption.
Noting that the assembly brought together almost 5,000 delegates from countries that widely vary in economic circumstances, ecosystems, cultures, resources, history and politics, Msuya said reaching the agreement was not an easy process.
The commitments were made under the backdrop of the sixth edition of the Global Environment Outlook, launched during the assembly and termed as the most comprehensive and rigorous assessment on the state of the planet.
Msuya said the resolutions reached during the assembly demonstrated global political will to tackle the challenges highlighted by the outlook.
“I’m hopeful about the future, because I see passion and engagement on environmental issues like never before. The transformative innovations presented during the week, showed that we have the economic interest, the policies and technologies to accelerate forward,” Msuya said.
Ministers from more than 170 UN member states expressed deep concern about the mounting evidence that the planet is increasingly polluted, rapidly warming and dangerously depleted.
They therefore pledged to address environmental challenges through advancing innovative solutions and adopting sustainable consumption and production patterns.
“We reaffirm that poverty eradication, changing unsustainable, promoting sustainable patterns of consumption and production, are the overarching objectives of, and essential requirements for, sustainable development. This is in addition to protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development,” the ministers said in the final declaration.
Kiisler, the president of the assembly and Estonia’s environment minister, said the resolutions touched on innovative solutions for sustainable production and consumption, waste management through sustainable practices, marine litter, singleplastic use, clean and electric mobility, and mineral resources among others.
Kiisler said the attendance of the assembly at about 5,000 delegates was a record high, showing a growing interest in environment issues. The first assembly, held in 2014, brought together about 1,500 delegates. Ola Elvestuen, Norwegian minister of climate and environment, was appointed on last Friday as the president of the next assembly.
For future editions of the Environment Assembly, Kiisler suggested a need to strengthen the legal bases of the resolutions.
“Everyone should have the right to demand for common principles for environmental governance across the globe.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said on Thursday that the lack of international law has left loopholes leading to degradation with complete impunity.
“We believe that what we need, given the situation we live in, are real laws, rules that are binding and adopted internationally. Our biosphere faces total devastation. Humanity itself is threatened. We cannot simply respond with some nice-sounding principles without any real impact,” Macron said.