The sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly have began at the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi.
Over 5,000 delegates from the 193 United Nations Member States, including Heads of State and Government, are expected to attend this year’s 6th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) at the UN Complex in Gigiri, Nairobi Kenya.
Cabinet secretary for Environment, Climate Change, Soipan Tuya will spearhead the discussions on critical environmental matters, emphasized the timeliness of the meeting amid global concerns over pollution, waste, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
The five-day UNEA-6 will cover a range of topics centred around the theme, “effective, inclusive, and sustainable multilateral actions to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution,” known as the triple planetary crisis. The event will culminate in a Ministerial Declaration outlining future steps.
One of the main points on the agenda will also be the dramatic increase of wasteful and fuel-intensive plastics, which is feeding the climate crisis.
Climate scientists argue that over 99% of plastic is made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels, the substances responsible for 86% of C02 emissions in the last decade.
Plastic pollution reinforces the need for a binding Plastics Treaty as well as a Fossil Fuel Treaty that can tackle the root cause of both the plastics pollution crisis and the climate crisis through phasing out oil, gas and coal production.
