My thanks for the opportunity to brief you on how UNEP is supporting Member States to tackle global environmental challenges through science, data and policy support in complex times.
And these times are indeed complex. We are seeing shifting alignments. Rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies. Growing trade and investment frictions. Growing competition for critical resources hydrocarbons, minerals, land and water all with significant environmental and social implications. A rise in disasters and conflicts, which are increasing already intense pressures on the environment and human well-being. The war in the Middle East makes this painfully clear.
Amid this background, our resolve to address the worlds environmental crises must grow stronger. Because environmental damage and associated economic disruption ripple across borders and contribute to forced migration, displacement, food shortages and more. You can be assured that UNEPs resolve is stronger than ever. As the United Nations leading global authority on the environment, the organization is at the heart of action we must collectively take.
Member States recognize this and indeed have shown their confidence in UNEP.
In December, at the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) in Nairobi, Member States adopted UNEPs forward-looking Medium-Term Strategy and handed down new mandates through 11 resolutions and three decisions, all of which will strengthen our support for environmental action. These include some new and urgent issues around the sustainable use of AI, combatting wildfires, and addressing the conundrum of supplying critical energy transition minerals which are required for energy access and transition, but also have implications for biodiversity and human rights, given the scale and speed at which these minerals are required.
Of course, these new mandates, added to our existing mandates, come during a time of funding challenges and UN reform through UN80.
The UN80 reform initiative is critical for UNEP as we seek to work with the rest of the UN system in delivering on the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals more effectively, more coherently and with greater impact.
We at UNEP are deeply engaged in all three workstreams. I am pleased that some of our innovations such as those on mandate development and the monitoring and reporting platform are inspiring the broader UN system. UNEP is playing a key role, together with the UNFCCC, by leading Work Package 27, which is undertaking a thorough assessment of current arrangements and will make proposals on possible structural changes and programme realignments on environmental issues.
Over 20 UN agencies and Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) are participating in this work. We approach this with a firm belief, based on science, that the environment undergirds the pillars of the UN Charter be it peace and security, be it human rights, or be it economic and sustainable development. And we then explore four interconnected issues science, governance, coordination and implementation that can strengthen the effectiveness and coherence of our work
Area one, Science, is looking at how the evidence from science informs the relations between a healthy environment and the three pillars of the UN Charter and at enhancing coordination of environmental science across the UN system crucial at a time when science is being challenged and selectively interpreted.
Area two, Governance, is looking to increase synergies among MEAs and elevate the role of the United Nations Environmental Assembly in the multilateral system as a convening platform for collective action for Member States, but also the UN system, MEAs and civil society.
Area three, Coordination, is seeking to reduce fragmentation and dispersion through mainstreaming interconnections between science-policy-action across the UN system, strengthening the Environment Management Group and aligning it with other environmental and natural resource coordination mechanisms, and enhancing the integration of science and global policies to regional and local level.
Area four, Implementation, is focusing on better connecting the scientific messaging, normative and policy setting processes, support mechanisms and modern tools to address gaps and mobilize private sector finance for implementation of MEAs and the 2030 agenda commitments.
Guy Ryder has already briefed on the UN80 initiative; UNEP will continue engaging through the Committee of Permanent Representatives in Nairobi and is ready to do likewise in New York at the appropriate time.
UNEP is also taking direct action on efficiencies and coordination.
UNEP was among the first UN entities in 2025 to undertake a functional review to allow us to navigate the reduction in resources. This was far from an easy process, but it enabled us to navigate these troubled waters and protect mandate delivery to the maximum extent possible.
And we are not sitting still. We at UNEP have closed our Washington and Moscow Offices, with representation now being done from New York and Almaty, respectively. We are taking measures to strengthen our strategic regional presence and better support Member States at the country level; and readying the organization to align itself with the UN80 initiative reforms while at the same time uplifting UNEPs normative work and coordination functions.
UNEP is therefore doing everything it can to adapt to new realities. But there is only so much adapting that can be done amid dwindling resources.
In a world of compounding environmental risks and growing financial pressures, UNEPs Environment Fund remains one of the smartest multilateral investments Member States can make. Yet this funding is under strain.
New mandates, on top of existing mandates, meant that we need a strong contribution to UNEPs Environment Fund. Together with the contribution from the Regular Budget, this Fund pays for the spine of UNEP: the science, the environmental law, the policy coordination, the capacity building, the standards and the convening.
In 2025, Environment Fund income declined from a budgeted US$100 million to US$85 million. For 2026, we are prudently planning for a US$70 million allocation to protect UNEPs long term financial sustainability.
Even so, we are proud and honored that 108 Member States in 2025 contributed to the Environment Fund and 79 Member States contributed their full share, the highest on record. That matters. It also matters when countries with the smallest shares meet their contributions. Many LDCs, LLDCs, SIDS and other Member States with low- and middle-income economies have consistently contributed their full share, e.g. Barbados, Belize, Egypt, Fiji, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Micronesia, Mongolia, Peru, Timor-Leste, Somalia, Sudan, Zambia, Yemen and many more.
This shows that commitment is not measured only in size, but in consistency, trust and solidarity. With having skin in the game. This shows that, even in a difficult fiscal context, broad-based support for UNEP remains real. I ask every Member State to do what it can to maintain and increase this support.
Such support will be critical in 2026, a year that holds many milestones for Climate, Nature and Land, and Pollution Action.
This is another year of Rio Trio COPs providing a real opportunity to accelerate action across every aspect of the environmental challenges. UNEP is, of course, backing these COPs and wider action.
On climate, UNEP is supporting action on multiple fronts.
UNEPs work on climate science strengthens the foundation for impactful policies and implementation through reports such as the Emissions and Adaptation Gap Reports, and actions around cooling, methane and food waste. New work on overshoot of 1.5C will inform Climate COP31 in Trkiye.
From methane to sustainable cooling, UNEP is focusing on areas where there is the greatest potential for decarbonization and for avoiding unnecessary energy and infrastructure costs, while also addressing the increased heating that many parts of the world are witnessing through a focus on efficient cooling.
On Nature and Land, UNEP is providing crucial support to the Rio Conventions on biodiversity and desertification.
The Convention on Biological Diversity COP17, in Armenia, will be a chance to accelerate action toward the 2030 targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework. UNEP is supporting 70 countries to finalize their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) including finance and capacity building. With UNDP, UNEP placed 24 national facilitators within governments to ramp up implementation significantly.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17, in Mongolia, will place a strong focus on efforts to sustain livelihoods, strengthen ecosystem resilience and address climate change in drylands. UNEP manages a US$435 million Global Environment Facility portfolio addressing desertification, land degradation and drought including around 90 projects in over 130 countries. UNEP is also supporting 112 countries in preparing national reports to the UNCCD.
Making strong progress on the BBNJ agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, which entered into force in January, is another priority. PrepCom III, which began today here in New York, will address arrangements for the first Conference of the Parties, which is expected in January 2027. UNEP has proposed to act as the institutional host of the BBNJ Agreement Secretariat, regardless of where Member States decide to geographically locate it building on its mandate as the UN systems leading global environmental authority, with established infrastructure, legal frameworks, and operational capacity on biodiversity, ocean and regional seas issues to support the Agreement.
There are, of course, other important gatherings.
COP-15 of the Convention on Migratory Species is underway in Brazil, aiming to strengthen action, including through listing of up to 16 species in the CMS appendices, strengthening measures to prevent unsustainable harvesting, and safeguarding migratory corridors and networks. UNEP is supporting the convention through interventions to conserve, restore and sustainably manage important ecosystems in the Amazon and Congo Basins, the Sahel and Central Asian Mountain landscapes.
At the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi, co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal, UNEP will present initiatives on watershed restoration, drought monitoring and wastewater surveillance. On the issue of water, the Baku Dialogue will continue to promote coherent water action across the Rio Trio COPs and strengthen synergies with related MEAs. Closely linked, of course, are the COPs of the Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans with the Nairobi Convention and the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia both gathering, in Tanzania and the Philippines respectively.
UNEP is also working towards crucial advances in chemicals, waste, and plastic pollution.
The Global Framework on Chemicals will hold its first International Conference in Geneva this November. This will be a key milestone in meeting its five strategic objectives and 28 targets, many of which are due by 2030.
The full operationalization of the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution (ISP-CWP) is a key priority. This panel, established in Uruguay last year, completed the trifecta of global science-policy panels alongside the IPCC on climate science, and IPBES on biodiversity and land science. However, operationalizing the Panel depends on finalizing the rules of procedure, establishing the financial architecture and agreeing on intersessional work at a resumed session of the first plenary.
In December 2026, the Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol will take place in Kigali, Rwanda. This meeting marks the 10-year anniversary of the Kigali Amendment with a key topic of discussion being the expected follow up on the HFC-23 emissions, regional atmospheric monitoring and lifecycle management of refrigerants.
It should also be noted that the Chemicals Treaties the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata Conventions held their COPs in 2025 with significant progress made on protecting our planet from chemical pollution.
Regarding the international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, progress is being made. Ambassador Julio Cordano of Chile a deeply experienced diplomat was elected in February as the new Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC). He has made it clear that he is determined to get the treaty over the line.
The Chairs letter of March 16 shared a roadmap outlining work to come, including a Heads of Delegation Meeting in Nairobi from 30 June 3 July and an ambition to reconvene for INC-5.4 either by the end of 2026 or the start of 2027. And we are seeing momentum continue, including through informal meetings. UNEP remains unwavering in its support to the Committee and delivering on the mandate of UNEA resolution 5/14.
Excellencies,
I am mindful that several important processes will also be taking place in New York, in which the full integration of environmental considerations is key, and in which UNEP is ready to provide science to support Member States in their deliberations. This includes the High-Level Political Forum in July; the High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response; and the High-Level Meeting on Sea-Level Rise, to be held in September this year.
And please do let me remind you of the International Day of Zero Waste (30 March), which this year focuses on food waste, and will be marked with a ceremony in the Trusteeship Council Chamber on March 27. My thanks to Trkiye and First Lady Emine Erdoan for their leadership on zero waste.
In conclusion, I ask for Member States support to ensure that the environment remains high on the UN and multilateral agenda. Because a vibrant and healthy environment, a predictable climate, well-functioning nature, and unpolluted air, soil, and water are critical to undergirding the UN Charters three pillars: peace and security, human rights and economic development. UNEP will continue to actively engage Member States in this process and looks forward to continuing its support to deliver a more effective and impactful United Nations.
