President Uhuru Kenyatta(C) with outgoing UNEP director Achim Steiner (L) and top UNEP officials at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi. on May 26, 2016 [Photo: the-star.co.ke]
Over 4,000 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, UN officials and civil society representatives gathered Monday at the third UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi to tackle the global menace of pollution.
“Our collective goal must be to embrace ways to reduce pollution drastically,” said Dr. Edgar Gutiérrez, Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica and the President of the 2017 assembly.
“Only through stronger collective action, beginning in Nairobi this week, can we start cleaning up the planet globally and save countless lives.”
Everyone on earth is affected by pollution, according to a new UN Environment report, The Executive Director’s Report: Towards a Pollution-Free Planet, which the meeting is using as the basis for defining the problems and laying out new action areas.
The report’s recommendations – political leadership and partnerships at all levels, action on the worst pollutions, lifestyle changes, low-carbon tech investments, and advocacy – are based on analysis of pollution in all its forms, including air, land, freshwater, marine, chemical and waste pollution.
Overall, environmental degradation causes nearly one in four of all deaths worldwide, or 12.6 million people a year, and the widespread destruction of key ecosystems.
A broader UN Environment policy statement, released ahead of the meeting, highlights the links between events over the last 12 months – hurricanes in the Caribbean and United States, droughts in the Horn of Africa and Yemen, flooding in Bangladesh, India and Europe – and the decisions we take about our ecosystems, energy, natural resources, urban expansion, infrastructure, production, consumption and waste management.