Although the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) was supposed to be held in 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic made it necessary to organize it in two parts: a virtual part (UNEA 5.1), held on 22- 23 February 2021, which was limited to procedural aspects, deferring consideration of substantive issues to a second part (UNEA 5.2), which took place in Nairobi from 28 February to 2 March 2022 in a hybrid format.
As a reminder, the United Nations Environment Assembly was established in June 2012, as world leaders called for the strengthening and upgrading of UN Environment at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20. Replacing UNEP’s Governing Council, the now universal UN Environment Assembly embodies a new age in which the environment is at the center of the international community’s attention, alongside issues such as peace, poverty, health and security. Its creation was the result of decades of international efforts, initiated at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, to create a coherent system of international environmental governance.
UNEA 5 aimed to catalyze intergovernmental action on the environment and contribute to the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals. The central theme of UNEA 5 was “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”, and it provided an opportunity for Member States to share best practices in sustainability, while also building momentum for governments to better rebuild by protecting ecosystems and providing nature-based solutions[1].
UNEA 5 was followed by the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The theme of the UNEP@50 event was “Strengthening UNEP for the implementation of the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. It provided an opportunity to reflect on the past and look to the future in relation to this theme. It also allowed to reinvigorate international cooperation and stimulate collective action to address the triple global crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
UNEA 5 adopted two declarations: a Ministerial declaration – “Strengthening Action for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals” – and a Political declaration to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of UNEP. It also adopted a number of resolutions and decisions, the most important and long-awaited of which was the resolution entitled: “End plastic pollution: towards an international legally binding instrument”, which was agreed by consensus by the Member States.
The Ministerial declaration, adopted on 2 March 2022, highlights two key points: (i) the renewed emphasis on the alarming degradation of the various components of the environment in all respects; and (ii) the commitment of the international community to enhance existing measures to address such degradation as well as to take further complementary measures to remedy it[2].
Concerning the Political declaration commemorating UNEP’s fiftieth anniversary, it called for the strengthening of its mandate, while calling on all actors, public and private, including civil society, to contribute to decision-making and implementation within UNEP. It also stressed the need for increased collaboration and cooperation between the bodies of the multilateral environmental agreements, through better synergy of their actions and means.
This Declaration, which should have addressed the report of the UN Secretary-General on the implementation of international environmental law following the proposed Global Pact for the Environment, merely recalled the terms of UN General Assembly resolution 73/333 of 30 August 2019 entitled: “Follow-up to the report of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group established pursuant to General Assembly resolution 72/277”. By doing so, it reaffirmed the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, while recognizing that the world today faces different challenges and must, therefore, strengthen international cooperation with regard to the environmental dimension of sustainable development.
The resolution “End plastic pollution: towards an international legally binding instrument” is the real innovation resulting from the work of UNEA 5. It genuinely justified its holding, preventing it from being reduced to an empty shell. This resolution was welcomed as a triumph for planet Earth over single-use plastics. Inger Andersen, UNEP’s Executive Director, said: “This is the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord. […], it’s an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it”. “Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic. With today’s resolution we are officially on track for a cure,” said Espen Barth Eide, UNEA-5 Chair and Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment.
The negotiation of the international legally binding instrument is expected to be completed by 2024 to govern plastic pollution by addressing the entire life cycle of plastics, i.e. their production, use and disposal. An intergovernmental negotiating committee will be set up to achieve this project and facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices in this area. The Government of Senegal has offered to host the first negotiating session of the future legal instrument (which effectively took place in Dakar from 30 May to 1 June 2022).
UNEA 5.2 was well attended, with a wide range of stakeholders representing 175 States, civil society, the private sector, the major groups of youth, women, indigenous communities, etc. The Minister responsible for the environment of Norway, who chaired UNEA 5, handed over to the Minister responsible for the environment of Morocco. The President of the UNEA 6 Bureau effectively took office by handling the work of the session celebrating UNEP’s 50th anniversary on 3-4 March 2022.
This environmental “big fair”, which took place 50 years after the Stockholm Declaration and the creation of UNEP, 40 years after the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and 30 years after the Rio Declaration and Conventions, did not result in a treaty, as was the case in Rio in 1992, but it did set in motion a process that could lead to the adoption of a binding international legal instrument on plastic pollution.
[1] https://www.unep.org/environmentassembly/fr/unea5
[2] Particularly that relating to the fight against plastic pollution through a new legally binding international instrument.