The summit with the UN Environment Assembly UNEA in March ended with, among other things, an agreement to develop a global, legally binding agreement on plastic waste. Approaching such an agreement is considered groundbreaking because environmental issues were put on hold during covid-19 - and it is only now that they have returned to the agenda again.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEA) continued at its fifth meeting (UNEA-5.2) in early March, attended by leaders, ministers and other representatives from nearly 200 countries. The theme of the meeting was nature's importance in achieving the goals of sustainable development, green reconstruction and sustainable recovery after the corona pandemic. The meeting began in 2021 with a virtual meeting and in 2022, the fifth meeting took place physically in Nairobi. The purpose of the meeting was to approve the strategy for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in the medium term, 2022 to 2025, and work programs for 2022 and 2023. The meeting in Nairobi led, among other things, to an agreement to develop a legally binding global agreement on plastic waste.
- All lost lives is of course a tragedy, but let's give a certain scale: covid-19 has caused close to six million deaths in two years. Indoor and outdoor air pollution alone causes seven million premature deaths each year. We stopped the world for covid-19, but we let it continue with pollution, said Inger Andersen, head of the UN Environment Agency UNEP, during the conference.
Sonly 2024 the litter agreement must be written. Sweden's Minister of Climate and Environment Annika Strandhäll (S) attended the meeting. She also plans to attend the meeting UNEP @ 50, also called Stockholm + 50, in Stockholm in June, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the UN Environment Program.