By Nneka Nwogwugwu
New Zealand will be taking part in commemorating 50 years of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) this year.
In the resumed UN environment assembly session (UNEA-5) – which has been postponed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic – a commemoration event will take place.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson confirmed a New Zealand delegation “will attend the environment session and participate in the negotiation of the assembly’s decisions”.
The session will be based out of Nairobi, Kenya, with delegations able to attend online and in person.
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Aotearoa has recently chaired a working group on plastic pollution and it is hoped an internationally binding commitment to help combat plastic pollution can be made at this session.
New Zealand is a founding member of the programme and a national delegation has participated in every assembly meeting.
Since it began in 1972, Aotearoa has contributed over $9.7M to the programme.
“The success of UNEP’s work highly depends on the contributions made by Member States…UNEP’s work supports global action on environmental issues that have transboundary impacts, like climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution,” the spokesperson said.
“UNEP also conducts capacity-building work in developing countries, including in the Pacific, to improve environmental outcomes for our region…It produces world-leading reports on the state of the global environment too.”
UNEP has universal membership from all member states in the United Nations.
