The first UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) will convene in Nairobi, Kenya, from 23 to 27 June 2014. This marks a historic milestone in UNEP’s 43-year history and is expected to be attended by delegations from over 170 countries.
UNEA is the UN’s highest-level platform for decision making on environment that is tasked to chart a new course in the way the international community addresses environmental sustainability challenges.
At UNEA – under the slogan A Life of Dignity for All – Ministers and international leaders will gather to discuss two key sustainable development and environment topics of current international concern, namely:.
- The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Post-2015 Development Agenda as follow-up from Rio+20 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and
- The illegal trade in wildlife to address the escalation in poaching and surge in related environmental crime.
To complement the Ministerial discussions UNEA will also see the convening of two Symposia that address two key aspects of environmental sustainability, namely:
- The environmental rule of law through the gathering of key representatives of the international judicial community, including chief justices, attorney generals and judges and
- The role of finance in the Green Economy by bringing to Nairobi and UNEA the leaders from the world of business, finance and industry.