Your excellency, Ambassador Pirkka Tapiola, Chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives,
A warm welcome to Elizabeth Maruma Mrema who joins us at her first meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives as UNEP’s Deputy Executive Director.
Ambassadors and Excellencies, colleagues.
My thanks to the Chair for leading us in a minute of silence as we mark the fourth anniversary of the Ethiopian Airlines crash that claimed so many lives, including from the environmental community. This disaster was a tragic blow to UNEP, the UN Environment Assembly and to many of us personally. We will continue to honour those who lost their lives by working ever harder to deliver on our mandate.
My deepest condolences also go to the people of Syria and Türkiye on the devastating earthquake that struck last month. One of the biggest natural disasters of our time, the Secretary-General has issued a US$ 400 million humanitarian appeal for Syria and a flash appeal of US$1 billion for Türkiye. The entire UN stands in solidarity with people impacted by these cataclysmic events.
Despite the pandemic and geopolitics, 2022 delivered some much-needed wins for the environment. I was pleased to see this trend continuing in 2023. Last week we saw a major breakthrough for our oceans with a historic agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. As the UN Secretary-General said, the new treaty is crucial for addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. UNEP is committed to supporting Member States in implementing this historic agreement through the full reach of the biodiversity-related Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Regional Seas Conventions and Regional Offices, and our Programme of Work.
While we applaud this milestone, which has been nearly two decades in the making, it also clear that time is not on our side as we deliver on environmental multilateralism. Tropical cyclone Freddy, which hit Madagascar and Mozambique last week, reminds us of our responsibility to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to climate change. The impacts of unprecedented floods in Pakistan remind us, so many months later, that the poorest continue to suffer from climate inaction. As I saw in my recent visit to Pakistan, large tracts of villages and farms remain under water. Our friends at UNICEF say that almost 4 million children live near contaminated and stagnant flood waters, risking their survival and wellbeing.
That we must continue to keep a close eye on the emerging health impacts of environmental degradation was the key message emerging from the 6th Global Leaders Group meeting on Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR). In Barbados, I joined Prime Minister Mia Mottley to launch the first UNEP spotlight publication of the year, ‘Bracing for Superbugs’. AMR is as much an issue of justice as it is a health issue, as it hits the poorest communities the hardest. If we are serious about creating a fairer, safer world, AMR must be near the top of the global agenda. The report makes a strong, science-based case for getting serious about AMR through preventing environmental pollution, especially in the pharmaceuticals, agricultural and healthcare sectors. I encourage you to explore its findings.
Finding ways to help LDCs break free from the “vicious cycles that make development difficult” – was the focus of the fifth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries in Doha, from where I have just returned. UNEP’s Medium-Term Strategy reflects our commitment to increasing our support and focus on the needs of least developed and land-locked developing countries, and small island developing states. UNEP is committed to three actions in support of LDCs: with other UN agencies and partners, to support LDCs and LLDCs with the development of critical minerals for the much-needed clean energy transition; to support implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to enhance resilience; and to advance sustainable waste management through life-cycle approaches.
As your excellencies are well aware, this month I had the pleasure of holding meetings with the regional and political groups to discuss environmental priorities for 2023 and to discuss preparations for the sixth UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 6). I thank you for the rich discussion that ensued. Among the many areas of discussion, I put the accent on the need to continue strengthening Nairobi as the global environmental hub for the world, proof of which is evident in the fact that the INC Secretariat for plastics pollution, the One Health initiative, and the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration are now based in Nairobi.
I heard from Member States the need to create awareness about UNEA in their regions and countries. I heard from Member States the need to turbocharge the environmental dimension of the SDGs. And I heard from Member States the need to better explore findings from key UNEP publications and what this means for individual countries and regions. In the spirit of continuous improvement, I am pleased to inform your Excellencies that we will now endeavour to brief Member States on the key findings from UNEP spotlight and institutional series such as the Emissions and Adaptation Gap reports shortly after the official launch of the report.
While on the topic of publications, an expert panel convened by UNEP has found that a large-scale Solar Radiation Modification deployment – intended to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space – is not currently warranted and would be unwise. At this point, the technology is fraught with uncertainties on the potential risks and impacts, compounded by complex issues of ethics and governance. I hope that the findings of the expert panel inform how the UN and Member States take this work forward to further develop a deeper understanding of the environmental and social implications of these technologies for sound decision making.
We will shortly be issuing a call for Expressions of Interest, inviting countries to host World Environment Day in 2024 or 2025. This gives all countries an opportunity, well in advance, to host what has become one of the largest and most influential global platforms for environmental outreach. World Environment Day by the way, turns 50 this year! I am so pleased that Côte d'Ivoire, in partnership with the Netherlands, will be the global host of this years’ powerful call for solutions to plastic pollution on June 5. Following the second meeting of the intergovernmental negotiating committee which begins in Paris at the end of May, I am confident that World Environment Day will serve as an important complement to the negotiations underway by drawing attention to solutions on hand.
As you can see from the calendar outside the room, we have a busy year ahead. There are many key inflection points. The UN Water conference; the first International Day for Zero Waste; the UN SDG Summit; the first Global Stocktake at COP28; the 5th session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management; INC 2 and 3 in France and Kenya; Science Policy Panel meetings and much more. These are points that we can and should use to strengthen environmental governance, strengthen UNEP and, most critically, bend the implementation curve upwards.
And finally in closing, allow me to draw your attention to UNEP’s 2022 Annual Report which is now online. The annual snapshot of key results serves as a useful reminder of the big hits that we delivered together last year, and the work ahead that lies before us.
Thank you.
