Post date: Feb 20, 2012 1:50:0 PM
NAIROBI, KENYA (FEBRUARY 20, 2011) (REUTERS) - The 12th Special Session of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF) opened in Nairobi on Monday February 20 and dignitaries and officials from more than 100 countries are expected to attend the meeting.
Global environmental experts hold meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, ahead of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Rio in June.
The three day meeting was opened by Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki and will run for three days.The event will be the last global meeting of environment ministers before the landmark United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) to be held in June. UNEP will also hold several events during the three days to mark its 40th anniversary.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon send a message that was read by UNEP Deputy Executive Director Amina Mohamed.
"We need an out come from Rio plus 20 that will relate to the concerns of all, it must be clear it must be practical and transformational it should convince even the sceptics. We must be prepared to take the decisions and adopt policies that will promote the long time development of our societies based on science and on the needs of future generations." Said Amina Mohamed.
The ministerial consultations during the twelfth special session will focus on emerging policy issues under the overall theme of "The environmental agenda in the changing world: from Stockholm (1972) to Rio (2012)"
Mwai Kibaki, President of the Republic of Kenya, joined the Executive Directors of UNEP and UN-HABITAT and the Director-General of UNON at the opening ceremony.
"Ladies and gentlemen despite the many advances made over the past 40 years environmental degradation continues to limit development options for many countries especially developing nations. Moreover the scale and frequency of environmental disasters are often beyond national capacities to manage. The disasters also affect and even reverse gains made in poverty eradication and sustainable development objectives." said Kibaki.
Kibaki warned however, that despite the many advances environmental degradation continues to limit development options of many countries especially the developing nations.
"Achieving green development and reversing environmental degradation requires strong institutions however without reforms in the international environmental governance, environmental re sustainability will continue to remain weak and unsustainable, development elusive." said Kibaki.
The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) as it is formally known and now scheduled for later in June will address two over-arching themes-a Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and an institutional framework for sustainable development.
RIO+20, envisaged as a summit involving heads of state, comes 20 years after the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 that set the course for contemporary sustainable development and established the climate change, biodiversity and desertification treaties as well as a forum on forests.
It also comes four decades after the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment that led to the establishment of UNEP-thus 2012 also marks the 40th anniversary of the environment programme of the UN.
2012 has also been designated as the "International Year for Sustainable Energy for All" by the UN's General Assembly. The year is aimed at creating an enabling environment for the promotion and use of new and renewable energy technologies.