The world’s top decision-making body on the environment is meeting in Kenya’s capital on Monday to discuss how countries can work together to tackle environmental crises like climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity.
The meeting in Nairobi is the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, and governments, civil society groups, scientists and the private sector are attending.
At the opening plenary at the U.N. Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi, Leila Benali, the president of this year’s assembly, urged members to work toward making “a tangible difference to people’s lives.”
Kenya’s environment minister, Soipan Tuya, described this year’s assembly as “an opportunity to inject optimism and restore faith” in the global environmental governance system.
At the gathering, member states discuss a raft of draft resolutions on a range of issues that the assembly adopts upon consensus. If a proposal is adopted, it sets the stage for countries to implement what’s been agreed on.
“None of us live on an island. We live on planet Earth, and we are all connected,” Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, which is leading the process, told The Associated Press ahead of the talks. “The only way we can solve some of these problems is by talking together.”
In the last round of talks in 2022, also in Nairobi, governments adopted 14 resolutions, including to create a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution globally. Andersen described it then as the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
“If this does go through, it would be very significant because it would be the first time ever to see global movement on highly hazardous pesticides,” said Beeler, who is attending the talks.
UNEP anticipates more than 7,000 attendees at the talks.
“What we should expect at UNEA-6 is decision makers looking into the horizon, being aware of what is it that’s coming to us that could potentially damage our planet, and taking preemptive action to prevent this,” said Andersen.
BY: Nadeem Faisal Baiga
