The meeting in Nairobi is the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), and governments, civil society groups, scientists and the private sector are attending.
At the opening plenary at the U.N. Environment Program headquarters in Nairobi on Monday, Leila Benali, the president of this year’s assembly, urged members to work toward making “a tangible difference to people’s lives.”
At the gathering, member states discuss a raft of draft resolutions on a range of issues that the assembly adopts upon consensus.
If a proposal is adopted, it sets the stage for countries to implement what’s been agreed on.
"These impacts are falling the hardest on the poorest and most vulnerable but no one, no one on this planet is immune," said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP.
In the last round of talks in 2022, also in Nairobi, governments adopted 14 resolutions, including to create a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution globally.
Andersen described it then as the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.
For this year’s talks, countries will discuss 19 draft resolutions, including on how best to restore degraded lands, combat dust storms and reduce the environmental impact of metal and mineral mining.
UNEP anticipates more than 7,000 attendees at the talks, which will end on Friday.
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