More than seven thousand delegates are expected in the Kenyan capital Nairobi for the 3rd United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), which kicked off on Monday.
The key meeting aims at finding solutions to combat the pollution problem, with the theme being, ‘Towards a pollution free planet’.
In his message, ahead of the conference, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there is an urgent need for rapid, large-scale and coordinated action by leaders from governments, industry, the scientific community and civil society.
“We already have much of the knowledge and technical solutions we need to prevent, mitigate and manage pollution. There are many examples of countries, cities and businesses taking action. And there are international successes, such as the entry into force of the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the recent announcement that the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol will enter into force on January 2019, having obtained the required threshold of 20 ratifications. With stronger policies, regulations, laws and fiscal incentives, we can scale up such progress, he said.
Guterres also said making the planet pollution-free is a long-term necessary endeavor, and urged the assembly to show strong leadership by sounding the alarm and calling on all governments to act to beat pollution.
UNEA is the world’s highest level decision making body on environment and it meets biannually in Nairobi. The last meeting was held in Nairobi in 2015.
UNEA has a universal membership of all 193 UN Member States and enjoys the full involvement of UN organizations, specialized agencies, inter-governmental organizations, civil society and the private sector.
