• Member states met online this year because of Covid but agreed to hold a physical meeting in Nairobi in February next year.
• Unep was founded in 1972 at Uchumi House on Aga Khan Walk in Nairobi. It later moved to the KICC, before finally settling in Gigiri.
Image: Courtesy
Environment ministers have warned of new pandemics due to the "unsustainable" way people are interacting with nature.
The ministers said the world faces recurring risks of future pandemics if the current patterns continue. They spoke during a UN Environment Assembly (Unea) meeting held via video-link.
"We realise that human health and wellbeing are dependent upon nature and the solutions it provides," they said.
Their sentiments are contained in a document adopted at the end of the two-day online meeting of the fifth Unea on Tuesday evening.
“We are deeply concerned by the continuing loss of biodiversity, especially through the degradation and fragmentation of ecosystems and habitats for wildlife; the threats to lives and livelihoods from climate change, as well as from pollution and poorly managed waste and chemicals jeopardising our environment and our overarching objective of sustainable development,” they said.
The assembly meets every two years to set priorities for global environmental policies and develop international environmental law.
Member states met online this year because of Covid-19 but agreed to hold a physical meeting in Nairobi in February next year.
The meeting was attended by thousands of online participants, including more than 1,500 delegates from 153 UN member states and over 60 environment ministers.
The assembly also agreed on key aspects of Unep work and initiated the commemoration of Unep’s 50th anniversary.
Unep was founded in 1972 at Uchumi House on Aga Khan Walk, Nairobi. It later moved to the KICC, before finally settling in Gigiri.
"It is increasingly evident that environmental crises are part of the journey ahead. Wildfires, hurricanes, high-temperature records, unprecedented winter chills, plagues of locusts, floods and droughts, have become so commonplace that they do not always make the headlines," President Uhuru Kenyatta said in remarks to the assembly.
"These increasing adverse weather and climatic occurrences sound a warning bell that calls on us to attend to the three planetary crises that threaten our collective future: the climate crisis, the biodiversity and nature crisis, and the pollution and waste crisis."
The member states also reaffirmed Unep’s mandate as the leading global environmental authority and called for greater and more inclusive multilateralism to tackle environmental challenges.
Sveinung Rotevatn, president of Unea-5 and Norway's Minister for Climate and Environment, said: "Everyone gathered at the environment assembly today are deeply concerned about how the pandemic causes new and serious health, socio-economic and environmental challenges, and exacerbates existing ones, all over the world."
At an event commemorating Unep's upcoming 50th anniversary in 2022, Inger Andersen, Unep's executive director, acknowledged the importance of the moment to reflect on the past and envision the future.
“This strategy is about providing science and know-how to governments. The strategy is also about collective, whole-of-society action – moving us outside ministries of environment to drive action,” she said.
President Kenyatta noted: “Unep has had a lasting impact on how we care for the environment, nature and our livelihoods.”
A message from Inger Andersen about the United Nations Environment Assembly.