By Abdullahi Jamaa (Nairobi)
The United Nations Environment Assembly said on Wednesday that over 2.5 million pledges from governments, civil society, businesses, and individuals were listed at the close of deliberations in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
The renewed international commitments that calls for pollution free world and cleaner coastlines are the latest pledges from global environmental leaders struggling to address continued destruction of the earth.
“The science we have seen at this assembly shows we have been so bad at looking after our planet that we have very little room to make more mistakes,” said Dr. Edgar Gutiérrez, Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica and the President of the 2017 UN Environment Assembly. “With the promises made here, we are sending a powerful message that we will listen to the science, change the way we consume and produce, and tackle pollution in all its forms across the globe.”
The world envisions that 1.49 billion people will breathe clean air, one-third of the word’s coastlines will be clean, and USD 18.6 billion of investment will come online. But it all depends on implementing the Nairobi commitments, the latest global push to end pollution amid unabated environmental degradation.
The assembly that attracted over 4,000 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, UN officials, civil society representatives, activists and celebrities also passed 13 non-binding resolutions that includes pollution mitigation and control in areas affected by armed conflict or terrorism, managing soil pollution and addressing water contamination.
“Today we have put the fight against pollution high on the global political agenda,” said Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment. “We have a long struggle ahead of us, but the summit showed there is a real appetite for significant positive change.
“It isn’t just about the UN and governments, though. The massive support we have seen from civil society, businesses and individuals – with millions of pledges to end pollution – show that this is a global challenge with a global desire to win this battle together.”
There are now 39 countries in the pollution free campaign where Chile, Oman, South Africa and Sri Lanka joined the CleanSeas campaign during the Nairobi summit whereas Colombia, Singapore, Bulgaria, Hungary and Mongolia joined 100 cities who were already in the BreatheLife campaign, which aims to tackle air pollution.
The UN says environmental degradation causes nearly one in four of all deaths worldwide, or 12.6 million people a year. It also identifies air pollution as the single biggest environmental killer, claiming 6.5 million lives each year.
