Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5)

GROUP OF 77
NAIROBI

Statement delivered on behalf of Group of 77 and China by H.E. Agrina Mussa, High Commissioner and Permanent Representative of Malawi and Chair of the Group of 77 (Nairobi Chapter), during the Opening Plenary of the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5) held virtually (Nairobi, 22 and 23 February 2021)

Mr. President,
Honourable Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

1. I am honoured to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, Nairobi Chapter.

2. The Group commends the UNEA and CPR Bureaux, the Secretariat and all other stakeholders for the hard work that has gone into organizing this online session of UNEA 5. The group also thanks the Republic of Kenya, the host country, for its continued support for the work of UNEP.

Mr. President,

3. The group would also like to congratulate all member states for the cooperation displayed during the 5th OECPR, which adjourned just a few days ago.

4. The group also notes with great appreciation the excellent leadership of the Chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR), H.E. Mr. Fernando Coimbra, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Brazil. With the support of the Bureau and of the Secretariat, and despite the logistical challenges posed by the pandemic, the Chair ensured the continuity of the important intersessional roles of the Committee and ably chaired the 5th OECPR, paving the way for the consensual adoption of urgent administrative and budgetary decisions, including a Medium-Term Strategy for 2022-2025.

Mr. President,

5. The online session of UNEA-5 is taking place as the world attempts to overcome and recover from a pandemic that has been claiming lives, reversing much of the development gains and reversing the progress made in several areas during the past decades. As highlighted by the UN Secretary General in his 2020 SDG Report, 71 million people were expected to be pushed back to into extreme poverty in 2020, the first rise in global poverty since 1998. The G77+China Ministerial Declaration adopted last November recalls that "eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, remains the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development". In this context, the G77+China recalls Principle 1 of the 1992 Rio Declaration, according to which human beings are at the center of the concerns for sustainable development, and express the conviction that, in order to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations, it is necessary to promote harmony with nature, for the very possibility of overcoming poverty, eradicating hunger and achieving all other SDGs, depends on a healthy environment.

Mr. President,

6. The United Nations Environment Assembly is the highest decision-making body on the environment, which champions the environmental dimension of the SDGs. We welcome that its fifth session will provide opportunities to reflect on how to build back better and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as we start the Decade of Action.

7. We appreciate that, despite the incidence of the Covid-19 pandemic, UNEA has not lost sight of its enormous responsibility, to come together for the well-being of people and the planet, even if it is in a self-restrained and virtual format. While acknowledging the outcomes of the virtual process during the OECPR, the G77+China looks forward to the day when in-person meetings can resume and the Assembly can meet in the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, further strengthening the only UN headquarters in the Global South as called for by Paragraph 88 of the Rio+20 Outcome Document, "The Future We Want".

Mr. President,

8. The digital divide is real. The G77+China Ministerial Declaration recalls that "many developing countries lack affordable access to information and communication technologies". We therefore appreciate that UNEP indicated the possibility of covering costs for access to high-speed internet for least developing countries to connect to this online session of UNEA-5.

9. We remain nonetheless concerned with the challenges that online meetings imply in terms of participation, inclusivity, transparency, effectiveness and multilingualism. It was precisely the recognition of the limitations of virtual meetings that led us to consensually agree to defer the consideration of substantive agenda items to the in-person session of UNEA-5, which we hope will be able to take place in February 2022, and to prepare for the online session solely a limited set of decisions on urgent administrative and budgetary matters, an exception that demonstrates our commitment to the business continuity of UNEP. We look forward to being able to resume in-person consultations here in Nairobi, so as to prepare the ambitious outcomes that UNEA-5 will need to strengthen actions for nature to achieve the sustainable development goals.

10. The G77+China recognises that resorting to digital means can facilitate the participation of those delegations without diplomatic representation in Nairobi, and we have been consistently appreciative of the efforts of the Secretariat in this regard, even before the current pandemic. Going forward, we are convinced that digital tools should be encouraged to complement in-person meetings, but not to as a substitute to them.

Mr. President,

11. The group would like to reiterate the need for strengthened international cooperation and functioning multilateral institutions in dealing with key environmental challenges, which include biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution occasioned by waste and chemicals. In doing so, we must take into consideration the different national circumstances.

12. The Ministerial Declaration of the G77 and China reiterated the need to uphold the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and to push North-South cooperation to continue to play its key role. So that all Member States can fully implement their environmental commitments, the international community will need to provide additional and strengthened means of implementation, that involve financial support, access to technology transfer and capacity building.

13. Certainly, this is without prejudice to the need and obligation for member states to ensure national efforts to implement their environmental commitments, allowing for a just transition towards sustainable development.

14. Therefore, we would like to urge Ministers gathered here to reaffirm their collective commitment to build back better in the post-pandemic world and take actions needed for a coordinated and comprehensive multilateral response to environmental challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. President,

15. In conclusion, G77 and China reiterates its commitment to strengthen actions for nature to achieve the sustainable development goals and hopes that the three draft decisions brought here for consideration will be adopted by consensus. We take note with appreciation the efforts of the UNEA President to prepare a draft consensual message for consideration at this online segment.

I thank you.