PAMACC News (NAIROBI, Kenya)
The UN Environment Assembly has acknowledged the importance of partnership in driving development actions across the globe .
To this end development stakeholders have decided to walk the talk against pollution with a joint USD 35 Million financial support to the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE). The financial support came from European Union, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and Switzerland.
The partnership of the five UN agencies is geared at supporting countries in greening their economies and tackling environmental challenges, while promoting better jobs and stable economic growth, according to a press release December 5th 2017 from UNEP
The announcement came at the third UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, attended by over 4,000 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, UN officials and civil society representatives to drive efforts towards a sustainable and pollution free future.
The success of the drive the leaders however noted, hinges on a global alliance of the different development stakeholders, working together for the common good.
“In order to move towards a sustainable and pollution-free future, we need a broad alliance of all stakeholders, one that transcends the traditional divides between industry and environmentalists,” said Jochen Flasbarth, Head of German Delegation and State Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety of Germany.
Delegates echoed their resolve to transform economies into a vehicle for sustainable development through solid alliances.
The EU is committed to cooperating with developing countries, but also to take action domestically, as shown by the ongoing implementation of the circular economy action plan,” said Mr. Daniel Calleja, Director-General for the Environment, European Commission.
The release notes that more than 90 countries have so far benefited from PAGE’s policy reforms at global and national level especially in capacity building.
Accordingly PAGE is supporting policy reforms on sustainable development and a pollution-free planet calling on leaders to increasingly champion growth that reduces and reliance on finite resources.
“As this partnership grows and helps more nations green their economies, we will see leaders increasingly champion sustainable growth that reduces emissions and reliance on finite resources,” said Erik Solheim, Executive Director of UN Environment.
The funding he said will help expand other works that have been done so far. “This new funding will help expand the great work that has been done so far, and move us closer to a pollution-free planet.”
Report from UNEP says environmental degradation overall causes nearly one in four of all deaths worldwide, or 12.6 million people a year, and the destruction of key ecosystems. The ongoing assembly is expected to to examine over a dozen resolutions on the table, including new approaches to tackling air pollution which claims 6.5 million lives annually.
“Making our planet free of pollution could be a new engine of growth, a net generator of green jobs, a new investment opportunity for the finance sector, and a vital strategy for addressing persistent poverty,” said Asad Naqvi, Head of the PAGE Secretariat.
The UN Environment General Assembly accordingly is the world’s highest level environment forum, attended by heads of state, environment ministers, CEO’s of multi-national companies, astronauts, NASA scientists, NGOs, environment ectvisits and other stakeholders to discuss and make global commitments to environmental protection.
It also provides the opportunity to track the latest development in environmental policy and actions by the different actors and exchange on experience.
PAMACC News
Coalition of women organisations attending the ongoing 3rd United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-3) today urged the global assembly to prioritise the protection of women human rights and environmental defenders.
The women groups under the umbrella of the Women’s Major Group (WMG) made the call at a side event on the challenges facing women’s environmental rights defenders.
“Since the effects of pollution outlive all of us, we want a fast-response civil society advisory committee and the strengthening of UNEP’s safeguards and human rights policies if really we are to leave no one behind,” the women groups said.
Identifying 2017 as the deadliest year for women’s environmental rights defenders, the women called for increased protection of their rights to indigenous land and resource ownership as they face increased crackdowns, violence, threats, intimidation and murder by state and non-state actors.
The Women’s rights group also paid tributes to women who lost their lives this year while highlighting the important role of women rights defenders in creating a pollution-free future.
Helen Hakena, Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency, Papua New Guinea said, “We have suffered a 20-year war, which has had a terrible impact on Women.
“62% of the men confessed to having raped women. Even though the war has ended, women still face immense aggression from the conflict of resources on our land, where an international mining company operated the largest open pit mine in the world,” she said.
“The Panguna mine has destroyed and polluted our land, forest, rivers and food sources, and seeps all profits away, Nehan added”
Priscilla Achakpa of the Women’s Major Group revealed that about 200 women’s environmental rights defenders have been assassinated within the past 12 months, mostly killed over land and forest conflicts.
“Only last week, we lost Elisa Badayos from the Philippines. But these conflicts are greatly aggravated by pollution,” Achakpa said
“Pollution is not incidental but a deliberate and inevitable consequence of a profit-oriented economy of mass production of harmful plastics, pesticides, and fossil fuels,” Priscilla Achakpa added.
Apart from this, the WMG chief said Nigerian women are exposed to hazardous chemicals every day.
“Samples of human breast milk obtained from Nigeria were found to have high levels of Persistent Organic Pollutants. A study found over 15,000 metric tonnes of pesticides per year were imported into the country between 1983 -1990,” Achakpa said.
In Kenya, some 5000 people are exposed to Mercury pollution in Artisanal Small-scale Gold Mining sites.
“Mercury is banned under the Minamata Convention, negotiated here at UNEP but in the impoverished community that I’m working with they don’t have much option,” says Griffins Ochieng from the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD), a Kenya based NGO.
“Mining gold and mixing it with mercury is the only knowledge they have and the main source of income. Communities do not have access to information about the hazards of using mercury. We need our government to stop mercury trade,” Ochieng added.
PAMACC News
As part of a 30m Euro intervention, the EU will, on 5 December, sign a 17.2m Euro agreement with three UN institutions working jointly to reduce the illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products throughout Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean.
The new ‘cross-regional wildlife programme’ will focus its activities in the regions’ most important protected areas, national transit points, and in some of Africa’s most important trans-boundary ecosystems.
The new project aims at tackling the illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products at three levels which include the MIKE Programme, that will lead the implementation of activities to reduce the illegal killing of wildlife at a number of priority protected areas located in critical trans-boundary ecosystems throughout Eastern and Southern Africa.
It will also incorporate the national and regional levels with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which will lead activities focused on reducing the international trafficking of wildlife products by strengthening and expanding their highly successful Container Control Programme, improving criminal justice responses and enhancing capacities through the criminal justice chain.
The regional level, activities under CMS will focus on developing and strengthening the governance and collaborative management mechanisms for some of most important ‘trans-boundary conservation areas’ throughout eastern and southern Africa.
This innovative project, building on the strengths of each of the three implementing organizations’ experience, will be signed at a high-level event of the ongoing UNEA-3.
PAMACC News
UNEA-3's Opening plenary UNEA-3's Opening plenary Over 4,000 stakeholders today converged on the green terrains of the UN office in Nairobi, Kenya to witness the opening ceremony of the 3rd United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA3).
This year’s edition of the assembly, which is the highest –level decision-making body on the environment, aspires to consider new policies, innovations and financing capable of steering the world “Towards a Pollution-Free Planet.”
The UNEA-3 brings together governments, entrepreneurs, and activists who will share ideas and commit to taking positive action against the menace of pollution. UNEA-3 aims to deliver a number of tangible commitments to end the pollution of air, land, waterways, and oceans, and to safely manage chemicals and waste, including a negotiated long-term programme of action against pollution that is linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The High-Level Segment of UNEA-3, which will take place from 5-6 December, is also expected to endorse a political declaration on pollution, aimed at outlining policy measures for, inter alia: addressing pollution to protect human health while protecting the developmental aspirations of current and future generations.
The ministerial segment will debut the interactive ‘Leadership Dialogues,’ aimed at providing participants with an opportunity for high-level engagement and discussion on how to achieve a pollution-free planet. Other UNEA-3 outcomes will include voluntary commitments by governments, private sector entities and civil society organizations to address pollution, and the ‘#BeatPollution Pledge,’ a collection of individual commitments to clean up the planet.
Discussions at UNEA-3 will draw on a background report by the UNEP Executive Director, titled ‘Towards a Pollution-Free Planet.’ The Report explores the latest evidence, as well as responses and gaps in addressing pollution challenges, and outlines opportunities that the 2030 Agenda presents to accelerate action on tackling pollution.
Welcoming delegates to the assembly, Prof. Judy Wakhungu, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources, declared that the assembly’s focus on beating pollution is very timely as pollution increases with every effort to provide services to our citizens.
“It is time, the world addressed this challenge without delay and agree on a common goal as a pollution-free planet cannot be achieved without working together,” she said. The environment is our responsibility; it is the source of our well-being. The fate of our world depends on the quality of the care we give it,” Prof Wakhungu added.
“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.”
New report on the environment
According to a new UN Environment report, everyone on earth is affected by pollution. The report entitled “Executive Director’s Report: Towards a Pollution-Free Planet” is the meeting’s 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 pollution, 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. Over a dozen resolutions are on the table at the assembly, including new approaches to tackle air pollution, which is the single biggest environmental killer, claiming 6.5 million lives each year.
Over 80% of cities operate below UN health standards on air quality. The report reveals that exposure to lead in paint, which causes brain damage to 600,000 children annually, and water and soil pollution are also key focus areas.
Also, over 80 percent of the world’s wastewater is released into the environment without treatment, poisoning the fields where we grow our food and the lakes and rivers that provide drinking water to 300 million people. According to recently published report by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, welfare losses due to pollution are estimated at over US$4.6 trillion each year, equivalent to 6.2 per cent of global economic output.
“Given the grim statistics on how we are poisoning ourselves and our planet, bold decisions from the UN Environment Assembly are critical,” said head of UN Environment, Erik Solheim. “That is as true for threats like pollution as it is for climate change and the many other environmental threats we face.”
Corroborating the report, Ibrahim Jibril, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Environment in his statement at the plenary averred that “pollution affects the air, soil, rivers, seas and health of Nigerians in an adverse way even though the actual cost has not been determined. Trans-boundary pollution, according to Jibril, “accounts for 28% of disease burdens in Africa.” The UNEA-3 will run from 4-6 December.
BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) 2018 will herald the launching of a new platform that will harmonise and coordinate multiple programmes and actors in Africa’s environment sector.
Estherine Fotabong, Programmes director of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) disclosed this today on the side-lines of the ongoing UN climate talks in Bonn also known as COP 23.
The new platform is a response to the call for the creation of an African Environment Partnership Platform (AEPP) to “coordinate, mobilize resources, foster knowledge and align support for the implementation of the Environment Action Plan” made at the 14th Session of African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN).
The African Union Commission and NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, in close collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, RECs and other relevant partners have been mandated to develop modalities for the operationalization of this environment partnership platform.
Ms Fotabong says the platform will seek to deliver a paradigm shift in addressing environmental degradation in Africa, in both public and private sectors and to develop innovative models.
“The platform will engender the prerequisite political support, needed institutional structures and adequate human capacity at national and regional levels to ensure integrated environmental management” she added.
Multiple environmental schemes
Concerns, however, have been raised by experts over the multiplicity of interventionist schemes and the attendant lack of coordination in the management of Africa’s environment.
Is this platform coming up because there is shortage of interventions in the field of environmental management in Africa? What about the lack of coordination and partnership between the various players at regional, sub-regional and national levels?
NEPAD believes the new platform is an accurate response to these concerns.
It is of the view that the cross-border nature of natural resources and transboundary effects of climate change, land degradation and other natural disasters make it imperative for the mainstreaming of national and regional planning process which this platform will spearhead.
The environment, Ms Fotabong says, though a cross cutting sector, will remain distinct and adequately harmonized with other sectors and priorities like agriculture, infrastructure and energy. Climate related risks will increasingly be mainstreamed into development and adaptation actions will be carried out in priority regions and sectors.
The Africa Environmental Partnership Platform is expected to draw lessons from the success and challenges of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme Partnership Platform (CAADP PP) which provided a framework for developing African agriculture and rallying support for agricultural transformation.
BONN Germany (PAMACC News) Non-state actors following negotiations at the Bonn climate talks also known as COP 23 have deplored the resort to empty words on climate change by global leaders during the high-level segment of the two-week conference.
Fijian Prime Minister and COP 23 President Frank Bainimarama at the high-level segment called on the country representatives to remain focused to ensure a successful outcome to the conference. “Future generations are counting on us. Let us act now”, he said.
Sequel to Bainimarama’s speech, a young boy from Fiji recounted the story of how his home was destroyed in a recent natural disaster, asking government representatives in the room “What can you do?” to protect the climate. “Climate change is here to stay, unless you do something about it”, he told the delegates.
Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that recent extreme weather events have shown that time was pressing. “I have no doubt that this urgency warns us to make haste and act decisively”, he said.
The “historic climate agreement” reached in Paris in 2015 and “the path we have taken since” must remain irreversible. “Paris can only be called a breakthrough if we follow up on the agreement with actions”, said Steinmeier.
Hopes for a strong statement on Germany’s climate goals and the future role of coal were dashed as Chancellor Angela Merkel disappointed only called on the world to walk the talk on climate at the global conference in Bonn.
“This conference must send out the serious signal that the Paris Agreement was a starting point, but the work has only begun.” Today’s pledges in the nationally-determined contributions were not enough to keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, she said. “Now it’s about walking the talk.”
Speaking after the chancellor, French President Emmanuel Macron, said that the summit should send the message that “we can all come together” to mobilise the necessary public and private funds to act on climate.
To guarantee quality science needed to make climate policy decisions, Macron proposed that the EU should fill the financing gap for the IPCC left open by the US administration’s decision to reduce funding.
“France will meet that challenge, and I would like to see the largest number of European countries by our side,” said Macron. “All together, we can compensate for the loss of US funding.”
Reacting almost immediately after the high-level segment, civil society groups from across the world described their statements as empty words with no concrete plan of action.
The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, (PACJA) accused the leaders of “playing hide and seek” with the lives of Africans who according to them are being cut short daily due to historic and ongoing actions of the developed world against the climate.
What we need, according to John Bideri, co-Chair of the Alliance, are “enhanced actions on the provision of $100 billion per year up to 2020 and a new finance goal which should reflect the scientific requirements and needs of African countries.”
“Advocacy-tainted speeches by leaders of polluter countries will not keep global temperatures from unprecedented levels, what is important now is a finance goal that will first and foremost help African countries to adapt, mitigate and cover loss and damage arising from climate change impacts,” Mithika Mwenda, PACJA’s Secretary General added
“This message from the host of a world climate conference must sound cruel to the poorest countries most strongly affected by climate change”, commented Oxfam Germany’s climate expert Jan Kowalzig.
Germany ran the risk of missing its climate goals, while in Berlin “three out of four parties to a potential Jamaica coalition’ block the measures needed to prevent such an embarrassing failure”.
Greenpeace Germany’s Managing Director Sweelin Heuss said that Merkel “avoided to give the only answer she had to give in Bonn: When will Germany fully exit coal?” Without a coal exit, Germany could not meet the pledge it made in Paris. “That's a disastrous signal coming out of this climate conference”, said Heuss.
Representatives from science, climate activists, and small island states appealed to Merkel to meet the country’s 2020 CO2 reduction target ahead of her much-anticipated speech.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), said Germany had the ability to quit coal use but instead there was the “perverse” situation where it generated power from coal, which then was exported.
“Angela Merkel has been a great climate champion but her credibility is hanging in the balance,” Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, said.
President Hilda Heine, of the Marshall Islands, added: “We are just two metres above sea level. For Germany to phase-out coal and follow a 1.5°C pathway would be a signal of hope to us and all other nations in danger from climate change.”
As the COP winds to a close Friday, speculations are rife that the conference will end without substantially addressing relevant concerns on temperature limits, finance and other means of implementation for the Paris Agreement.
