Excellencies and Colleagues,
We are gathered here in the country where the three Rio Conventions on climate, biodiversity and desertification were born over thirty years ago. There could be no more appropriate place to consider how to bind more closely these conventions and the many other conventions, regional agreements and frameworks on the environment.
And if I may be so bold, there could be no more appropriate organization than UNEP to reflect on how to do this. Many Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) have their genesis somehow in UNEP or the UN Environment Assemblys predecessor, the Governing Council. The family of agreements, regional conventions and scientific panels has grown since 1972 to encompass every aspect of the three environmental planetary crises: climate change; nature and biodiversity loss, and land degradation and desertification; and pollution and waste.
UNEP is privileged to host and administer the secretariats of over two dozen agreements, regional conventions and scientific panels including the new global science-policy panel to support the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution which completes a global scientific trifecta alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Its also why we know the impacts of fragmentation and benefits or synergies.
Each agreement has delivered successes, from slowing the rate of climate change, to protecting many species and huge areas of land and sea, to raising the profile of desertification and land degradation action. But we are not keeping up with the accelerating environmental crises. To have any chance of doing so, we need to act as one. These crises are indivisible. The earths systems are indivisible. Conventions should support this indivisibility.
Excellencies,
Achieving genuine policy coherence requires vision and high-level engagement, institutional reform, fiscal alignment, spending reviews and the integration of planning and reporting cycles under a shared national framework moving from coordination mechanisms toward coherent governance systems. This is easier said than done, but we must try.
Integrated and systems approaches can enable cost-effective planning, implementation and monitoring of all commitments, targets and actions plans across the Rio Conventions and beyond.
Stronger domestic coordination and cooperation reduce duplication, enhances efficiency in decision-making and makes better use of resources for whole-of-government engagement.
Coherent integration into national budgetary processes and financing plans ensures that all ministries can participate in the implementation of the Rio Conventions.
And, of course, we must engage the private sector, Indigenous Peoples, women, youth and local communities to enhance the transparency, equity, and sustainability of MEA outcomes in other words, ensuring a whole-of society approach.
Excellencies,
Let me be clear here. Synergy does not mean diversion of focus, funds or efforts. It is not about shifting funding from climate to nature or pollution, or vice versa it is about shifting more funding for everything. It is about delivering win-wins, such as investments in nature that bring dividends for extreme heat, delivering on both adaptation and mitigation. We are not trying to slice up the pie and fight for our share. We are aiming to increase the size of pie.
Synergies also only apply to topics where there is genuine convergence, so we should not waste time and money trying to pound square pegs into round holes. And let us remember that coordination and integration take time so it is important to focus on what delivers impact rather than on information sharing and coordination for the sake of it.
Excellencies and colleagues,
As you know, we hosted the first-ever MEA day at the sixth session of United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6). UNEA-7 convenes on 8-12 December, and we will again be holding an MEA day on 10 December involving COP Presidents, Heads of States and Ministers, Executive Secretaries and Heads of MEAs, and participation from the whole UN system and stakeholders.
I hope you can all join us in Nairobi, the place where environmental diplomacy delivers, to keep striving for unity amongst all conventions and agreements, so we can deliver maximum impact across the three environmental planetary crises.
