The plane heading for Nairobi on Sunday was carrying 19 UN staff bound for the environment conference.
Over 4,700 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives are in Nairobi for the meeting of the world’s top body on the environment, where they will take decisions that move global societies to a more sustainable path.
The fourth UN Environment Assembly runs from 11-15 March under the theme “Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production”.
It is the biggest gathering in the Assembly’s short history, with attendance almost double the last event in December 2017.
Prominent world leaders will attend, including the Presidents of France and Kenya, Emmanuel Macron and Uhuru Kenyatta, and CEOs from major corporations.
Bold decisions and outcomes are expected as the delegates negotiate late into the night over five days.
Resolutions are on the table to push harder for sustainable consumption and production patterns, commit to the protection of the marine environment from plastic pollution, reduce food waste, and advance technological innovation that combats climate change, and reduces resource use and biodiversity loss.
The Assembly’s status as the only UN body outside the General Assembly where all member states convene, and its power to bring together all sectors, means that the global environmental agenda is defined here.
Decisions have a profound impact on the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as paving the way towards the UN Climate Change Summit 2019 and impacting the overall UN agenda.
Ahead of the meeting, UN Environment’s Acting Executive Director, Joyce Msuya, appealed to nations to step up and start delivering real change.
“Time is running short. We are past pledging and politicking. We are past commitments with little accountability. What’s at stake is life, and society, as the majority of us know it and enjoy it today,” she wrote in a policy letter.
A UN Environment background report for the Assembly, which serves as a basis for defining problems and laying out new action areas, makes a strong case for urgent action.
The report puts the value of lost ecosystem services between 1995 and 2011 at $4 trillion to $20 trillion; shows how agricultural practices are putting increasing pressure on the environment, costing