“Just signing agreements is not enough”

Last year saw the adoption of two groundbreaking environmental agreements on sustainable development and climate change.

Next month, several staff members from GRID-Arendal will attend the second United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-2) in Nairobi to help put those agreements into action. In September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development which lays out a shared vision of what the world should look like in less than 15 years from now. The assembly’s theme is “Delivering on the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and it is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment.

UNEA-2 will be held from 23-27 May and will produce resolutions and issue a global call to action to address the critical environmental challenges the world faces today.

“Just signing agreements is not enough,” says Peter Harris, GRID-Arendal’s managing director.

“More than 190 countries will attend the assembly, so this is a unique opportunity to move the environmental agenda forward and build a healthier environment,” says Harris.

GRID-Arendal will focus on a number of important environmental issues, including organising and contributing to a side event during the high-level section that will draw attention to the problem of plastics in marine environments. GRID-Arendal staff are also involved in events focused on the importance of adaption to climate change in mountain environments and the global effects of environmental crime such as illegal logging and poaching.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, which is coordinating UNEA-2, the environment “has moved from the margins to the centre of the world’s sustainable development agenda.” As evidence of this, UNEA “gives the environment the same level of global prominence as issues such as peace, poverty, health, security, finance and trade.”

Follow #UNEA2, @UNEP & @GRIDArendal for the latest on UNEA.