UNEA-6: A Call for Complementary Action for the Rio Conventions

Sixth Session of The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6)

The world will converge at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, from 26 February to 1 March , 2024 for the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6).

UNEA is the world’s highest decision making body on the environment and this year’s session will focus on “how multilateralism can help tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.” This year’s theme addresses a long overdue issue. Indeed, it is about time global conversations found a way to look at exploring the complementarity between the three Rio Conventions- climate change, biodiversity, desertification- since all three push for the same destination.

The Paris Agreement on climate change, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification all align to drive the key principles of the Sustainable Development Goals- creating a world anchored on sustainability through the preservation of all life-forms, protecting nature, restoring degraded lands, in summary, ensuring that people and planet align for sustainable prosperity.

In essence then, climate change plays a role in biodiversity loss and land degradation. Both in turn impact on the level of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Specifically, in addresing one of the issues, we can provide solutions to the others. For instance, conserving our biodiversity and regenerating degraded lands can provide nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. Quite simply then, we can at once address the triple issues of climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification if we see all three as similar problems with complementary solutions.

According to Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), “…it sometimes feels like we are all in one boat aiming for the same port, operating dozens of different wheelhouses connected to different rudders. We are not taking the fastest, most direct route to the destination.”

The fastest and most direct route to our destination lies in apprehending the simple fact that the three Rio Conventions are not in competition with each other, but really are three fingers on the same hand, and with the same goal.

What UNEA-6 therefore offers the world is a chance to look beyond operating “different wheelhouses”, which detract from our goals and make us work in a circuitous manner. We must find a way to align our actions to ensure that efforts are aggregated for a similar goal irrespective of whether we are championing biodiversity conservation, desertification, or climate change. In the final analysis they all aim for the same thing- a prosperous world where humans and nature are in sync.