It is heartening that at the recent UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, governments agreed to 25 landmark resolutions to drive sustainability agenda and Paris Climate Agreement.
The world’s environment ministers, gathered at the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2), passed far reaching decisions on issues such as marine litter, illegal trade in wildlife, air pollution, chemicals and waste and sustainable consumption and production – which are an integral part of the global action needed to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Thousands of delegates from 174 countries took part in UNEA-2 and associated side events on issues of global importance.
The main theme of UNEA-2, delivering on the 2030 Agenda, was a particular focus.
The implementation of the work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be a primary undertaking of the UN system, and the Assembly showed their full understanding of this.
UNEA asked the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to initiate new partnerships and strengthen existing ones, including with the private sector and civil society.
Building on its work in sustainable finance with the UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System and the UNEP Finance Initiative, member states also asked UNEP to continue to build on its work at the intersection of finance and the environment.
With the Paris Agreement one of the most significant environmental agreements in recent decades, UNEA also agreed that UNEP should accelerate support to countries, especially developing countries, to build national readiness capacity to implement the Agreement, build implementation capacity and capacity to access finance and technology.
A key issue at UNEA-2 was the illegal trade in wildlife, which is pushing species to the brink of extinction.
UNEA-2 passed a resolution building upon previous commitments made at the first UNEA and General Assembly resolution 69/134, urging member states to take further steps at the national level and through regional and international co-operation to prevent, combat and eradicate the supply, transit and demand related to the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products.
This includes implementing strategies and action plans, strengthening governance systems on issues such as anti-corruption and anti-money-laundering, supporting the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime and the African Elephant Fund, and developing sustainable and alternative livelihoods for communities affected by the illegal trade in wildlife and its adverse impacts.
UNEP and partners also launched a new campaign, Wild For Life, to engage millions of members of the public to end the illegal trade in wildlife.
It is estimated that there are 5.2tn pieces of plastic floating in our oceans, harming both the marine environment and biodiversity.
To address this problem, member states resolved to encourage product manufacturers and others to consider the lifecycle environmental impacts of products containing microbeads and compostable polymers.
The World Health Organisation estimates show that an estimated 12.6mn deaths are attributable to environmental factors each year, highlighting the importance of a healthy environment to healthy people.
Several resolutions related to human health and the environment were passed at the assembly.
