The UN and five African presidents demanded joint measures this Thursday in Kenya to help a planet “on the brink” due to the scourge of a triple crisis: climate change, the loss of biodiversity and pollution.
“Our planet is on the brink of the abyss. Ecosystems are collapsing,” warned UN Secretary General António Guterres at the VI UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), which is being held this week in Nairobi.
“Our climate is imploding and humanity is to blame,” Guterres said in a video shown at the high-level segment of UNEA-6, the world’s main environmental decision-making body.
To combat this crisis, the UN Secretary General advocated “taking urgent measures” and “working together (…) to put the world on the path to sustainability and accelerate sustainable development.”
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was very graphic when he stated before the Assembly that, “if our planet were a patient, it would be admitted to intensive care.”
“His vital signs are alarming,” Tedros remarked before a dozen African heads of state and government and ministers from around the world.
In this context, the Ethiopian diplomat pointed out that it is not surprising that “human health is suffering” when the health of the planet “is in danger.”
As examples of that reality, Tedros said that “more heat waves contribute to more cardiovascular diseases,” while air pollution “causes lung cancer, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.”
“Collectively, we got ourselves into this mess. Collectively we must get out of this. “No country or agency can do this alone,” concluded the head of the WHO.
The presidents of Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Botswana and Gabon spoke in a similar tone, highlighting the importance of acting jointly in the face of the challenges presented by the climate crisis and its threats to the well-being of the population.
“We are witnessing rising temperatures, more droughts, floods, the melting of polar ice caps and the disruption of human life on all continents. We cannot continue like this forever,” cried the president of Somalia, Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud.
An “existential crisis”
The president of Kenya, William Ruto, called for “collective action” to tackle the “existential crisis” of the planet.
“Given the magnitude and urgency of the existential crisis facing humanity and life on our planet, only collective action at a multilateral level that is effective, inclusive and sustainable will allow the international community to confront climate change, the loss of biodiversity and pollution,” Ruto declared.
The President of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, also spoke along these lines, emphasizing the importance of acting multilaterally in the face of environmental challenges to “create a system of international environmental governance consistent with ecology.”
For his part, the president of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh, made it clear that we must begin to act: “inaction is not an option, since it destroys the credibility and solidity of multilateralism and the international system,” he asserted.
The head of the military junta that has governed Gabon since the coup d’état on August 30, Brice Oligui Nguema, said that “the challenges of climate change, biodiversity and pollution constitute, without a doubt, serious threats to the well-being of the population”.
UNEA-6 brings together more than 7,000 representatives of governments, civil society and the private sector this week in Nairobi, including 150 ministers and deputy ministers, from more than 180 countries, according to the latest data released this Thursday by the UN Program for the Environment (UNEP), with headquarters in Nairobi.
In this sixth session since the launch of the Assembly in 2014, the countries evaluate in the Kenyan capital some 19 resolutions that cover challenges such as stopping desertification, counteracting air pollution or limiting chemical pollution.
The resolutions of the UNEA, which includes the 193 UN Member States, are not legally binding, but are considered an important first step on the path to global environmental agreements and national policymaking.