Your Excellency, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Sri Lanka
Your Excellency, Mr. Naseer Ahamed, Minister of Environment, Sri Lanka
Your Excellency, Mr. Ali Sabry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka
Your Excellency, Mr. Ali Salajegheh, Vice President, Islamic Republic of Iran
And joining us via video messaging this morning
Your Excellency Mr. Sitiveni Rabuka, Prime Minister, Fiji (Pre-recorded Video Message)
Your Excellency, Ms. Leila Benali, President of 6th United Nations Environment Assembly and Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development of Morocco (Video Message)
Mr. Zuhair Ahmed Kowshik, Global Coordinator of the Children and Youth Major Group to UNEP
Ministers, senior officials, distinguished guests and colleagues. All protocols observed.
Good morning, everyone.
It is an honour for me to be here representing the United Nations Environment Programme.
We gather today at a precarious moment for our planet.
The natural world – the very foundation of our societies and economies – is buckling under the weight of three intertwined environmental crises: climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
These unfolding catastrophes are getting worse by the day and jeopardizing decades of hard-won development gains.
This is especially true in the Asia-Pacific region.
In just the last few months, countries from India to Vanuatu have been blanketed in record heat, lashed by cyclones and floodwaters.
Left unchecked, this extreme weather will combine with other long-percolating environmental problems, like air pollution and deforestation, to impact economic growth.
This could, sadly, shatter the dreams of millions for a better life.
That, my dear friends, is why this forum is so important.
It is an opportunity for the Asia-Pacific region to speak with one voice about the most challenging environmental issues it is facing. This is vital for ensuring those concerns resonate on the global stage.
So, I would like to thank you for your presence here today and for all of your efforts to make the Earth a more sustainable place.
I would also like to offer my sincere appreciation to Sri Lanka for hosting this gathering and to the Republic of Korea for leading the last ministerial forum in 2021.
So, the next few days will be critical ones for the environmental agenda in the Asia-Pacific region.
We are less than five months away from the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, which will focus on multilateral solutions to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
This theme builds on a call from the UN Secretary-General to re-invigorate the multilateral system, which is critical to overcoming the social, economic and environmental crises threatening life on this planet.
Global cooperation is also vital to making good on the promises made at the recent Sustainable Development Goals Summit in New York.
There, governments, the UN and other development agencies vowed to accelerate progress on the SDGs, which are offtrack.
Between now and UNEA-6, we still have several milestone events that will feed into UNEA including INC-3 and MOP35 for the Montreal Protocol in Nairobi, the Ministerial Forum on the Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean, Climate COP28, Mercury COP5 and CMS COP14.
All of these, including this forum and UNEA itself are an opportunity to showcase the power of multilateralism to deliver timely, inclusive, science-based solutions to the planet’s gravest environmental threats.
Because, my dear friends, no one country or regional bloc, no matter how big, or how rich can tackle these challenges alone.
They are simply far too big and far too complex.
We need every single one of UNEP’s 193 Member States pulling in the same direction if we’re going to, in the words of the UN Secretary-General, make peace with nature.
So, in the coming days we have a lot of work ahead of us.
We will review how the Asia-Pacific region is implementing a host of past UNEA resolutions.
We will discuss draft resolutions for the upcoming sixth session of UNEA and develop a ministerial outcome document for UNEA-6.
But as we do this, I would ask that you keep one thing in mind: the world needs to hear your voice.
This region is facing unique challenges and has a unique perspective. You have much to offer the global environmental movement.
In fact, many countries from this region, including Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Mongolia and Samoa, have sponsored resolutions at past UNEAs.
It is my hope that this region will continue to play a leading role at UNEA, which has become a central body for identifying environmental challenges and coordinating a global response to those issues.
Consider this a dry run for UNEA 7, whose president will come from the Asia-Pacific region.
So, before I close, I would like to re-iterate that UNEP is your partner on the path to environmental sustainability.
For 50-plus years, we have been the world’s leading authority on the environment, spearheading efforts to save the ozone layer, protect endangered species, counter climate change, and safeguard land, sea and air from pollution.
For many decades we have worked closely with countries in Asia-Pacific and with regional blocks, like ASEAN, to put the environment at the heart of policy making.
I would encourage you to support that work by contributing to UNEP’s two key financing mechanisms, the Environment Fund, our core source of funding, and our new thematic funds which target climate change, nature loss and pollution.
Funding from our Member States is crucial to ensuring that UNEP can continue to address the issues of most concern to governments.
For those Member States that are already strong supporters of UNEP, you have my deepest thanks.
With that, I would like to once again thank you for your engagement and wish you a productive series of talks.
Thank you.
