NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 3 (IPS) – As geopolitical challenges and tensions escalate globally, one thing is clear: fragmented politics will not save a broken planet. This is why the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) – the world’s highest decision-making body on the environment – is so crucial to tackling our shared and emerging environmental threats.
The Assembly’s seventh session, taking place next month at the UN Environment Program (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, will bring together ministers, intergovernmental organizations, multilateral environmental agreements, the broader UN system, civil society groups, scientists, activists and the private sector to shape global environmental policy.
Recent UNEP data shows that emissions continue to rise as the impacts of global environmental and climate challenges become more extreme. We see it in record heat waves, disappearing ecosystems and toxins in our air, water and soil. These are global threats that require global solutions.
Even in turbulent times, environmental multilateralism continues to deliver results. Since the countries met at UNEA last year, this multilateralism has made important progress.
Governments agreed to establish the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution – finally completing the “trifecta” of scientific bodies alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The BBNJ Agreement on the Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction has come into force, a major victory for the governance of our oceans.
Importantly, in such a challenging political climate, the Paris Agreement shows that it works. However, it is clear that we need to act much faster and with more determination. But change is happening: the global shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development is irreversible. Renewable energy surpasses fossil fuels in price. Climate-smart investments are the driving force behind the vibrant economies and societies of tomorrow.
While we must acknowledge that many hoped that COP30 would include an explicit reference to phasing out fossil fuels in the decision text, this was not to be the case. However, the COP president pledged to draw up two roadmaps during his one-year term: one to halt and reverse deforestation, and another to transition away from fossil fuels – a move supported by more than 80 countries during the talks.
These are not small steps – nor are they enough to fully address the threats we face. But they do reinforce that multilateralism can still bring science and policy together to tackle our global challenges.
Of course, progress is not always linear. Since UNEA’s historic 2022 resolution on a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, negotiations have continued to progress. While a full treaty text has not yet been agreed, the latest talks in Geneva earlier this year made hard-won progress and continue to keep countries at the table, maintaining momentum toward an agreement that ends plastic pollution once and for all.
This year, under the theme ‘Advancing Sustainable Solutions for a Resilient Planet’, UNEA will build on these victories to pave the way for even greater progress.
The seventh edition of UNEP’s flagship report, the Global environmental prospectswill be critical in informing how we shape this future. The report, released at UNEA, will help us go beyond the diagnosis of our common challenges and identify real solutions in five interconnected areas: economy and finance; circularity and waste; environment; energy; and food systems. Drawing on contributions from hundreds of experts around the world, the Outlook will help countries prioritize the most effective solutions to achieve our global goals.
To deliver results at the speed and scale required, the United Nations system must work together – with the entire family of multilateral environmental agreements coming together to support countries. UNEP is proud to organize 17 conferences and panels covering the entire environmental spectrum, from toxic chemicals to the protection of the ozone layer. Bringing this family of agreements closer together offers opportunities to better align priorities.
This is why UNEA will focus centrally on how these agreements can better work together for accelerated, more targeted support to countries in implementing their obligations. Because action on climate is action on biodiversity and land; because action on land is action on climate; because action against chemicals, pollution and waste is action against nature and the climate.
Doing nothing now has clearer costs than ever. At UNEA-7 in Nairobi – the environmental capital of the world – the ‘Nairobi Spirit’ can transform shared challenges into shared action and, ultimately, shared prosperity on a safe, resilient planet that benefits all.
IPS UN Office
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