By Bisola Adeyemo
The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) will resume its fifth session to discuss policies to address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
The UNEA programmes which started on February 22-23, 2021 will again this month, bring together representatives of the 193 Member States of the UN, businesses, civil society, and other stakeholders to agree on policies to address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
UNEA is organized in two steps. The first step – UNEA-5.1 – was an online-only meeting, which took place on February 22-23, 2021. The second step – UNEA-5.2 – is held in-person and online in Nairobi, Kenya.
The overall theme for UNEA-5 is “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”. This highlights the pivotal role nature plays in our lives and in social, economic and environmental sustainable development.
UNEA-5 is an opportunity for Member States to share best practices for sustainability. It will create momentum for governments, build on and catalyze impact on multilateral environmental efforts to protect and restore the natural world on which our economies and societies depend.
Immediately after UNEA-5.2, the Assembly will hold a Special Session of the Assembly on 3 – 4 March 2022, which is devoted to the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of UN Environment Programme in 1972.
Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad explained that the second part of the session will discuss the extent to which actions for nature are strengthened to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by focusing on the pivotal role that the environment plays in our lives and in sustainable social, economic, and environmental development.
She added that the meeting comes to affirm that the environment is the main element to achieve the ambitions of the 2030 agenda adopted by all UN member states in 2015 to end poverty and conflict, build just and inclusive societies, and ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources.
Moreover, Fouad stressed the importance of environmental issues to which Egypt contributed to solving through its presidency of the 14th Conference on Biological Diversity and its preparation of the draft roadmap for the post-2020 period before handing over the presidency to China last October.