NAIROBE, Kenya — On the sidelines of the week-long United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA6), the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Southern Cooperation Manssour Bin Mussallam held a series of round-table discussions with key leaders of Member States and non-Member States that focused on how to materialise areas of collaboration on environment issues, underpinned by South-South cooperation.
Among them were the Minister of Environment of the Republic of Angola, Ana Paula Chantre Luna de Carvalho Pereira; Minister of Green Economy and Environment of the Republic of Zambia Engr. Collins Nzovu; Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of the Republic of Nicaragua Heddy Calderon Palma, and the Regional Coordinator for Africa of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Ibrahima Sow.
The Secretary-General, accompanied by OSC Special Adviser for Environment Policy and Climate Action Dr. Getahun Garedew also met with the Minister of Environment of Mauritania Lalya Kamara; Minister of State for Environment of Rwanda Dr. Claudine Uwera and the Secretary-General of Environment and Sustainable Development of Madagascar Andy Fidiniana Moise Rasamoelina. The high-level discussions centered on how to foster climate stability, live with harmony with nature, and forging a pollution-free future.
Highlight of the meetings was the Secretary-General’s fruitful sharing of ideas with the New York-based UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the UNEP, Ligia Noronha on the alignment of synergistic cooperation between organizations with emphasis on education, frugal technologies and climate action.
Also part of the discussion was with UNEP’s Major Group Facilitating Committee (MGFC) on how countries of the South are facing challenges in the implementation of strategic direction that would generate concrete action on climate change to achieve the future that we want, capped by the Secretary-General’s fruitful meetings.
The MGFC serves as the primary interface for major groups engagements in UJNEP’s governance, ensuring voices are heard and integrated into environmental policies and best practices.
With this year’s theme: “Effective, inclusive and sustainable multilateral actions to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution”, UNE6, held here on February 26-March 1, 2024 at UNEP Headquarters had set its focus on its core mission in finding solutions to the triple planetary environment issues on a global scale.
Member States and key stakeholders came together at UNEA6 and discussed howe to advance the Decade of Action, with focus on addressing the interlinkages of the three Planetary environmental crises.
A series of leadership and multi-stakeholder dialogues and more than 30 official side events and associated events laid the groundwork for strengthened future global and regional coordinated efforts by the United nations, Member States and partners to deliver high impact climate action.
