President Uhuru Kenyatta during the 3rd UN Environment Assembly. [Photo/PSCU]
President Uhuru Kenyatta today officially opened the third United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi where Kenya was praised for banning the manufacture and use of plastic packaging both at industrial and domestic levels.
President Kenyatta opened the third UNEA with a call for a commitment from all countries in the world to copy Kenya’s example of banning the use of plastic bags.
“My advice is that nations should not heed the skeptics, who say that all countries cannot protect our planet better by banning plastic carrier bags,” said the President.
The President also urged the United Nations Environment Programme to strengthen its functions even as he announced that Kenya will increase its voluntary contributions to the world environmental body.
He also announced that after the plastic ban milestone, Kenya has embarked on organising a major regional anti-pollution forum.
The Government is organising to host the East African Framework
Agreement on Air Pollution, building on the Nairobi Agreement of 2008. The Nairobi agreement brought together 11 countries to develop actionable targets to address air pollution.
“In furthering the Agreement on Air Pollution, we hope to repeat the success we have achieved with the ban of plastic carrier bags, and we look forward to global support in this effort,” said the President.
President Kenyatta also announced that Kenya has started bidding for the hosting of the second United Nations Oceans Conference in 2020. The first conference was held in New York in June this year.
He said Kenya plans to organise and host a global conference on blue economy within next year as a build up to the Oceans Conference.