UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi to emphasize local applications

The fourth United Nations Environment Assembly, opening on Monday in Nairobi, is expected to pay a special attention to innovations and practices that African countries can adopt to hasten the green agenda.

According to Juliette Biao, regional director for Africa at UN Environment Programme, the innovation theme was initiated by African policymakers.

She said the assembly will also provide a platform for knowledge sharing that can be applied in local settings to stimulate green and inclusive growth in Africa.

"We look forward to adoption of resolutions that are relevant to African needs, like creating green jobs for the youth and protection of ecosystems that support rural livelihoods," Biao said.

One of the key events slated during the assembly will be the first regional edition of the One Planet Summit, a platform of commitments to meet the climate change challenge, which will take place on March 14.

To be co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the session will bring together CEOs and inspiring voices from civil society to showcase achievements and breakthrough initiatives, and trigger new coalitions and commitments.

The session is expected to highlight the unique role of Africa as a global partner facing both challenges and opportunities, particularly in the field of innovative solutions for adaptation and resilience.

While Africa is responsible for only 4 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, 65 percent of the African population is considered to be directly impacted by climate change, according to the summit materials.

African countries have been committed to investing in green innovation to boost the continent's development in line with the Libreville Declaration, issued during the African ministerial conference on the environment held in Gabon in 2017.

The ministers there committed to reinvest a larger proportion of revenue into improving Africa's natural capital, including land, forests, fisheries, water and biomass fuels, on which the continent's development depends.

African governments said they were determined to cooperate on such environmental issues as pollution, circular economy, desertification, wildlife management and trade, sustainable energy, and climate change.

Meanwhile, Joyce Msuya, UN Environment's acting executive director, has issued a forceful call to action ahead of the assembly.

In a letter to UN member states, Msuya wrote, "Time is running short. We are past pledging and politicking. We are past commitments with little accountability. What is at stake is life and society."

"It is time for us to truly give shape to the fundamental transformations that will be required to sustain human life - transformations in our food systems, energy systems, waste systems, economic systems - and indeed our value systems," Msuya wrote.

She outlined five entry points for driving the transformative changes that the planet requires: circularity, a new deal for nature, cities, clean cooling and renewable energy.

"If we are able to drive systemic change across these areas, then we will contribute to lifting people out of poverty and building a safer, healthier and more equitable world. By protecting the planet - as we have seen on so many occasions - we are also protecting its people," she wrote.

Msuya called attention to the many opportunities to be found in the shift to a more sustainable world.

"Some of the most important solutions to the climate crisis - and to biodiversity loss, and to so many other challenges - will come from innovation," she wrote. "And we have proof that well-crafted policies can kick-start innovation and help to diffuse critical new technologies at a pace and on a scale that would have seemed impossible just a generation ago."