The “contribution of the environmental dimension of sustainable development to building a resilient and inclusive post-pandemic world” was discussed by delegates taking part in the Leadership Dialogues during the Fifth Session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5).
Mr. Gaetano Leone, Coordinator of UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention Secretariat, made the following (pre-recorded) statement.
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Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, In spring last year, the UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan-Barcelona Convention Secretariat set about determining how assets available within the MAP system could be used to support the regional response to COVID-19. We framed our contribution in two main strands. The first involved staying the course on strengthening the normative environmental protection framework within the context of Agenda 2030. The second was about harnessing Mediterranean-specific scientific evidence to advocate for a post-COVID-19 green renaissance. The State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean, a major report produced by UNEP/MAP and its Plan Bleu Regional Activity Centre, was released in October 2020. As Mediterranean countries continued to grapple with the pandemic, but started contemplating recovery, the report warned that the region is not on track to achieve the SDGs by 2030; that rising inequality, biodiversity loss, the growing impact of climate change and unrelenting pressure on natural resources could lead to irreversible environmental damage ; and that unless urgent and resolute action is taken to halt current trajectories, environmental degradation will have serious and lasting consequences for human health and livelihoods in the region. Released a month later, the First Assessment Report of the Network of Mediterranean Experts on Climate and environmental Change (MedECC), established —for the first time—the facts of the unfolding climate crisis in the basin. Both reports confirmed that the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution has already been taking a hefty toll in the Mediterranean. The consequences of the pandemic have exacerbated this crisis. UNEP/MAP, as Secretariat to the Barcelona Convention has used the knowledge encapsulated in these topical assessments to advocate for the re-engineering of our relationship with marine and coastal ecosystems in the context of the recovery from COVID-19. Maritime transport in the Mediterranean, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, offered a good place to start the green renaissance that we wish to see in the region. Excellencies, we are working with our Contracting Parties on a roadmap for the possible designation of the Mediterranean as an Emission Control Area for Sulphur Oxides. This would generate positive ripple effects that go well beyond the shipping sector to sweep through the Blue Economy. It would send a signal that it is time to ‘shift the needle’ in all sectors, including tourism. Action at national level and of our role in catalyzing it, are more than ever central for the implementation of the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols. The MedProgramme, for instance –a 43 million USD assortment of seven projects funded by the GEF and implemented with an number of stakeholders including development banks—is deploying more than 100 coordinated actions at regional and national levels. Among other results, the MedProgramme is expected to lead to the disposal of 3,250 tons of Persistent Organic Pollutants, fifty (50) tons of Mercury, as well as the prevention of the use of 1,309 tons of POPs per year. In recent months, among the constraints imposed by the pandemic, we also inaugurated new projects funded by the European Union, aimed at combating marine litter, progressing with the application of the Ecosystem Approach throughout the basin, and building capacity in the production of quality-assured data on the state of the Mediterranean coastal and marine environment. This achievement of extraordinary importance and ambition confirmed the role of the more than four decades of the Regional Seas Programme and in particular of the Barcelona Convention in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, we pursued our efforts with the Contracting Parties and partners, Civil Society and the private sector, to strengthen the normative environmental protection framework in support of the implementation of the SDGs. Because, Excellencies, bolstering enforcement, and compliance with existing obligations under the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols is the shortest and most practical route to building a better future for all, in the region. Throughout our 45-year long endeavor we have acted as ‘integrators’, translating the global commitments into action at the national level. UNEP/MAP will continue on this route. In fact, a raft of new anti-pollution, pro-sustainability regional plans and decisions will be submitted for adoption at the 22nd Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, in December this year, that will take place in Antalya, Turkey. This will be an important, forward-looking meeting that will also adopt the 2022-2027 Medium-Term Strategy of UNEP/MAP, echoing the priorities set by UNEP but with the specificities of the Mediterranean. COP 22 will serve as a regional forum to take stock of this year’s major conferences: this session of UNEA, The COPs of global MEAs on issues such as Climate change and biodiversity and the IUCN World Conservation Congress, among others. It will discuss pathways to “flick the green switch” for a sustainable and resilient future in the Mediterranean, as we develop and implement responses to the COVID 19 pandemic. Thank you very much for your attention. |
