The sixth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), which opened in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday, is focusing on multilateral action to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

Around a million species are headed towards extinction, global temperature records were smashed in 2023 and pollution remains one of the world’s leading causes of premature death.

“It is time to lay political differences aside and focus on this little blue planet, teeming with life. Time to lift our sights to our common goal: a pathway to a sustainable and safe future,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UN Environment Programme (UNEP). “We do this by agreeing on the resolutions before UNEA-6 to boost multilateral action for today and tomorrow, and secure intergenerational justice and equity.”

The assembly, the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment,  will consider some 19 resolutions on issues including pesticides, land degradation and drought, the environmental aspects of minerals and metals, and, support to the Global South to mitigate to the triple crisis.

“We are living in a time of turmoil. And I know that in this room, there are people who are, or who know, those deeply affected by this turmoil. Our response must demonstrate that multilateral diplomacy can deliver,” said Leila Benali, president of UNEA-6 and Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development. 

“As we meet here in 2024, we must be self-critical and work towards inclusive, networked and effective multilateralism that can make a tangible difference to people’s lives,” she told the record-breaking 7000 delegates from all 193 UN member states at the start of the assembly.

“We must also include voices beyond government, of youth, indigenous peoples and local communities, by focusing on issues of gender and human rights, and leaving no one behind,” Benali added.

“It is time to lay political differences aside and focus on this little blue planet, teeming with life. Time to lift our sights to our common goal: a pathway to a sustainable and safe future,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “We do this by agreeing on the resolutions before UNEA-6 to boost multilateral action for today and tomorrow, and secure intergenerational justice and equity.”

“Nature-based solutions have the potential to play an outsized role in
achieving the SDGs. That’s why Targets 8 and 11 of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, include explicit commitments to nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches” #UNEA6 #NbS pic.twitter.com/gzXNWlput1

— Elizabeth M. Mrema (@mremae) February 26, 2024

 “UNEA-6 comes at a time when the world is also called upon to accelerate the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda if we are to stay course on sustainable development. Unfortunately, for millions in the developing regions of the world, including here in Africa, poverty still remains a daily reality while economic inequality is increasing globally,” said Soipan Tuya, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Forestry. 

“It is against this backdrop that the world will be looking to us here in Nairobi this week to renew hope. And hope we must provide.”

UNEP is advocating for nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches to meet Social Development Goals. The organisation is working with governments and organisations that are looking at projects ranging from afforestation to river revivals.

The Assembly is set to have more than 30 official side-events and associated events, ending on 1 March.

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