President Mwai Kibaki has called on the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Governing Council to support the African position and endorse the transformation of UNEP into a specialized organization based in Nairobi.
The President said the transformation of UNEP into a specialized UN agency will create broader legitimacy through universal membership and result in better coherence in decision-making.
President Kibaki added that the transformation will also enable more efficient implementation of decisions regarding environmental issues.
“It is for this reason that the African Union has taken a common position to support the transformation of UNEP into a specialized UN agency. This will enable us to place equal importance on the environmental sector as has been placed on other sectors of
sustainable development,” President Kibaki said.
The Head of State was speaking Monday at the United Nations Office at Gigiri in Nairobi where he officially opened the 12th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum.
President Kibaki said Kenya has embraced green growth as a national priority to guide the country’s future development and climate resilience.
“We believe that a green economy must foster accelerated economic development, address poverty eradication and improve social welfare,” President Kibaki said.
The President observed that achieving green development and reversing environmental degradation requires strong institutions.
In this regard, President Kibaki cautioned that without reforms in the international environmental governance, environmental sustainability will continue to remain weak and sustainable development elusive.
Recalling that 40 years ago the United Nations organized the first major conference on international environmental issues in Stockholm Sweden, President Kibaki said the conference marked the beginning of new thinking about the environment and defined new global principles for the conservation and protection of the natural environment.
In addition, President Kibaki said, the conference made a decision to establish the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi.
Citing the climate change conference in Durban last December, President Kibaki noted that the world has made great strides towards establishing a more effective international regime to address climate change challenges.
The President, however, noted that despite the many advances made over the past 40 years, environmental degradation continues to limit development options of many countries especially the developing nations.
Moreover, President Kibaki pointed out, the scale and frequency of environmental disasters is often beyond national capacities to manage.
He regretted that the disasters also affect and even reverse gains made in poverty eradication and sustainable development objectives consequently eroding at an alarming rate the natural capital which is the basic wealth for many developing nations.
Speaking during the occasion, the Director General UNON Ms. Sahle-Work Zewde expressed appreciation to the Kenya government for providing adequate security to the UN installations and staff in the country.
Ms. Zewde pledged to work hard towards upgrading the Nairobi duty office to be at per with other UN offices.
On his part, the Under Secretary- General and Executive Director UNEP Dr. Achim Steiner expressed appreciation to the Kenyan people for their continued support to the UN environment programmes undertaken in the last 40 years.
