Advancing the Environmental Agenda

GRID-Arendal was front and centre in several important events at the second United Nations Environmental Assembly held recently in Nairobi, Kenya.

Called UNEA-2, the assembly attracted 174 countries and 120 government ministers who gathered to discuss crucial environmental issues. By the end of the session, the delegates had passed 25 resolutions on everything from how to stop environmental crime, to dealing with plastics in the oceans, to air pollution and sustainable consumption and production.

The meeting, attended by thousands of delegates, put a number of important issues “on the radar,” according to Peter Harris, Managing Director of GRID-Arendal.

Wildlife crime was a major topic at the assembly, Harris says. GRID-Arendal was involved in events that focused on the topic and worked with UNEP and other partners on a new analysis of the effects of wildlife crime released for UNEA-2.

At a high level event, Victor Rønneberg, Norway’s ambassador to Kenya, said his country sees strong links between the environmental crime and international organized crime and trafficking in drugs, weapons, and people.

The UN launched a celebrity driven campaign at UNEA-2 called #WildforLife to raise awareness about the global effects of wildlife crime.

GRID-Arendal also took part in meetings focused on illegal logging and mining and will be doing work in these areas in the future.

While environmental crime has been on the radar for a while, Harris says this year UNEA made an important link between trade in animals – illegal or legal. Even with a legal permit, catching one baby chimpanzee often leads to the death of “whole families,” he says. “You can’t take a baby chimp from its mother without killing the mother.” For every live bird in the store as many as a half dozen have died on the way.

The news of the biggest coral bleaching event ever on Australia’s Great Barrier reef landed just as delegates gathered in Nairobi. Harris says the reef may be at a “tipping point” and that makes the discussion at UNEA around deep sea reefs even more important. GRID-Arendal produced a report on mesophotic reefs (which lie 30-40 metres below the surface) that indicated they may act as “lifeboats” for other corals threatened by increasing water temperatures due to climate change. Another UNEA discussion focused on whether these reefs could act as nurseries for threatened coral in shallower locations.

However, we don’t know a lot about these reefs, Harris says. “Our message is we need to know whether these deep reefs are and we have to protect them.” The discussions and resolution passed at UNEA-2 are a first step.

Another area where we lack knowledge but which is receiving a lot of attention is the effects of plastics in the ocean.

“Where is it, where is it coming from and where is it going?” Harris says Norway is taking the lead in the fight against marine litter by committing 10 million NOK to a broad international investigation to determine if current international legislation and agreements are sufficient.

GRID-Arendal is involved in a number of UNEP regional environmental assessments now underway. Called GEO-6 regional assessment looks at the state of the environment in the region and the main trends that will affect its environment in the future.

GRID-Arendal’s Clever Matufa presented the main findings of the regional assessment for Africa which focuses on the major challenges the continent faces in the coming years, including a population expected double to 2.5 billion by 2050.

Matufa listed land degradation, air pollution, poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water as some of the major environmental problems in Africa. “The continent has an opportunity to use its large young population to drive its growth to help reverse the current trend,“ he said.

GRID-Arendal also took part in UNEA-2 activities that focused on gender equality, pastoralism and the effects of extractive industries, areas in which the organization will focus its attention in the next year.