When: June 8, 2022, from 10 am Nairobi Time (GMT+3)
Where: UNEP HQ-Nairobi, Kenya and Online
Register to participate in the summit.
The ocean, which covers more than 70% of our planet, feeds us, regulates our climate, and generates most of the oxygen we breathe. The ocean also serves as the foundation for much of the world’s economy, supporting sectors from tourism to fisheries to international shipping.
However, the ocean is threatened by climate change, plastic pollution, and marine resources' overexploitation.
Leticia Carvalho, Principal Coordinator, Marine and Freshwater Branch at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), will moderate the morning session titled: Towards a plastic pollution-free planet— Building up on solutions through youth, private and informal sectors. Ambassador Ana Filomena Rocha – Portugal’s Head of Mission in Kenya, is expected to give opening remarks at the opening session alongside UNEP Deputy Director Sonja Leighton-Kone, Ambassador Susan Mwangi, Director/UN & Multilateral Affairs Directorate, and Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for Oceans.
The impacts of plastic production and pollution on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution are a catastrophe. Plastic production soared from 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 348 million tonnes in 2017, becoming a global industry valued at US$522.6 billion, and it is expected to double in capacity by 2040.
Exposure to plastics can harm human health, potentially affecting fertility, hormonal, metabolic and neurological activity, and the open burning of plastics contributes to air pollution.
The hybrid Summit, on World Ocean Day (celebrated globally every 8 June), seeks to raise the international community’s level of ambition months after Heads of State, environment ministers and other representatives from over 175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly to end plastic pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement, by the end of 2024. The landmark resolution addresses the entire lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design and disposal.
The Summit is a lead-up—a bridge—to the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal 27 June to 1 July 2022, co-hosted by the host country and the Government of Kenya. The theme for the meeting is Scaling up Ocean Action Based on Science and Innovation for the Implementation of Goal 14: Stocktaking, Partnerships and Solutions.
The meeting also contributes to the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), which seeks to support transformative ocean science solutions for sustainable development, connecting people and our ocean.
Register to participate in the summit.
Further information
