- Soipan Tuya said over 5,000 delegates from the 193 United Nations will participate in the 6th session of the UN Environment Assembly.
- UNEA was created in 2012, as an outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Brazil.
The sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly began at the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi on Monday.
Addressing the assembly, Climate Change and Forestry CS, Soipan Tuya said more than 5,000 delegates from the 193 United Nations will participate in the 6th session of the UN Environment Assembly.
CS Tuya will spearhead discussions on critical environmental matters.
Heads of State and Government are expected to attend the event from 26 February to 1 March.
Experts, activists, and industry representatives will also participate in the event.
Every two years, all 193 UN Member States convene to collectively address critical environmental challenges facing the planet.
CS Tuya said the meeting is timely as the world is facing threats of pollution and waste, biodiversity loss and climate change.
She said the meeting will build on the outcome of last year’s Africa Climate Summit.
“As the world’s highest environmental decision-making body, UNEA can address these issues through collective thinking and global actions that focus on diverse aspects of the environment,” the CS said in a supplement in the local dailies.
This sixth edition of UNEA follows a previous event held in Nairobi from February 28 to March 2, 2022, which concluded with the adoption of 14 resolutions aimed at halting the progression of the triple planetary crisis and advancing actions for nature to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
UNEA was created in 2012, as an outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Brazil.
Since its establishment, the Assembly has ushered in a new era of multilateralism with environmental issues given the same level of importance as such global concerns as peace and security, and health.
Over the years, UNEA has approved important resolutions on topics such as combating illegal wildlife trafficking, protecting the environment in areas of armed conflict, and sustainable urban mobility, among others.
Due to the discussions at the Environment Assembly’s 2022 session, negotiations have begun on the first legally binding international instrument to end plastic pollution, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
The central theme of UNEA-6 will be multilateral environmental agreements and how they can help overcome the triple planetary crisis of climate chaos, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Despite the socio-economic uncertainties that arose in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current growing geopolitical tensions, the last two years have been marked by important victories for environmental cooperation.
For instance, in 2022, the UN General Assembly recognized the universal human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, opening space for constitutional and legal changes at the country levels in favour of the environment and humanity.
In June 2023, the 193 UN Member countries signed the so-called High Seas Treaty, to conserve marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdictions.
Last November, a long-awaited agreement on ‘loss and damage’ financing for vulnerable countries hard-hit by climate change was announced at the UN climate conference, COP28.