The world\u2019s top decision-making body on the environment is meeting in Kenya\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us live on an island. We live on planet Earth, and we are all connected,\u201d Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, which is leading the process, told The Associated Press ahead of the talks. \u201cThe only way we can solve some of these problems is by talking together.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the meeting, 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\u2019s been agreed on. In the last round of talks in 2022, also in Nairobi, governments adopted 14 resolutions, including the creation of a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution globally.<\/p>\n
Andersen described it then as the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris Agreement to limit global warming. For this year\u2019s talks, countries have submitted 20 draft resolutions for discussion, including on how best to restore degraded lands, combat dust storms and reduce the environmental impact of metal and mineral mining. But with countries having different priorities, it\u2019s often hard to get consensus on the draft resolutions.<\/p>\n
However, Andersen said, there\u2019s generally \u201ca forward movement\u201d on all draft resolutions for this year\u2019s meeting, known as UNEA-6. With this meeting\u2019s focus on multilateralism, UNEP wants to build on past agreements it led between governments, such as the Minamata Convention to put controls on mercury and the Montreal Protocol to heal the hole in the ozone layer, Andersen said.<\/p>\n
Bjorn Beeler, international coordinator for the International Pollutants Elimination Network, thinks there\u2019ll be slow progress on more complex issues such as financing around chemicals and waste. Beeler also expects strong opposition on a draft resolution that wants to phase out the use of highly hazardous pesticides.<\/p>\n
The draft resolution, which was submitted by Ethiopia and is co-sponsored by Uruguay, aims to create a global alliance of UN bodies like UNEP, the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organisation. \u201cIf 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,\u201d said Beeler, who is attending the talks.<\/p>\n
UNEP anticipates more than 70 government ministers and 3,000 delegates at the talks. \u201cWhat we should expect at UNEA-6 is decision makers looking into the horizon, being aware of what is it that\u2019s coming to us that could potentially damage our planet, and taking preemptive action to prevent this,\u201d said Andersen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The world\u2019s top decision-making body on the environment is meeting in Kenya\u2019s capital on Monday to discuss how countries can\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":31874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[539,4638,10454,9540,4732,10453,344,10452,10455],"class_list":["post-31873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-climate-change","tag-global-warming","tag-international-labour-organisation","tag-kenya","tag-pollution","tag-the-world-health-organization","tag-un","tag-unep","tag-united-nations-environment-assembly"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}