The resumed in-person fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2) will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from the 28th of February to the 2nd of March 2022, under the theme, “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”.
Zimbabwe will be represented by the Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Hon. MN Ndhlovhu and delegates under his Ministry.
The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), which has a membership of 193 UN Member States, including major groups and stakeholders, is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment, which addresses the critical environmental challenges facing the world today. It meets biennially to set priorities for global environmental policies and develop international environmental law. UNEA is run by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
The UNEA was established under The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio 2012, Rio+20 or Earth Summit 2012. Since then, environment ministers for the UN Member States have been meeting in Nairobi, Kenya every 2 years. The first, second, third and fourth sessions were held in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019, respectively.
The fifth session of UNEA was scheduled for February 2021 in Nairobi Kenya. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was held virtually and dubbed UNEA 5.1. During the virtual conference, a resumed hybrid session, was agreed; UNEA 5.2. The resumed session, UNEA 5.2, will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from the 28th of February to the 2nd of March 2022.
Just after UNEA5-2, there will be a special session to celebrate the United Nations Environment Programme’s 50th anniversary; UNEP@50 from the 3rd to the 4th of March 2022. The theme for the UNEP@50 event is “Strengthening UNEP for the implementation of the environmental dimension of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. It marks fifty years since the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, widely seen as the first international meeting on the environment, also known as the Stockholm Conference.
The conference spurred the formation of environment ministries and agencies around the world, kick-started a host of new global agreements to collectively protect the environment, and led to the formation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The UNEA is preceded by the Open-Ended Committee of Permanent Representatives (OECPR), which prepares meetings, through discussing and negotiating resolutions and decisions to be adopted during the Assembly. For UNEA 5.2, the OECPR conducted sessions from the 21st to the 25th of February 2022 to prepare resolutions for the assembly.
There were 17 proposed resolutions for UNEA-5.2, which were being discussed and finalized by the OECPR, and these have been grouped into 5 clusters namely; Plastic pollution, Biodiversity and health, Chemicals and Waste, Green Recovery, Circular Economy and Mineral Resource Governance, and lastly Administrative issues such as Date and Venue of UNEA6, Equitable Geographical Distribution within the UNEP secretariat and the Global Environment Outlook.
The expected outcomes of the Assembly are to inform and gives strategic direction to member states on best environmental practices and strategies to implement in their strategic countries in line with global positions.
Zimbabwe’s participation in the UNEA will strengthen the Nation’s environmental management systems which in turn will aid the achievement of the aspirations of the National Development Strategy 1 as well as the National Vision of “An upper-middle-income economy by 2030.”
This comes at a time when the Nation is finalizing consultations for the review of the Environmental Management Act (CAP 20:27), the main piece of legislation on environmental issues in the country.