first Asia-Pacific Ministerial Summit on the Environment

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in cooperation with UN Environment is organizing the first Asia-Pacific Ministerial Summit on the Environment from 5-8 September 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. This meeting brings together for the first time two UN ministerial-level meetings on the environment, namely the seventh Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific and the second session of UN Environment’s Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific. Senior officials will convene in Bangkok from 5-6 September, and environment ministers from 7-8 September.

The Ministerial Summit is organized on the theme ‘Towards a resource-efficient and pollution-free Asia-Pacific,’ and will discuss the linkages between resource-efficiency and pollution reduction in region. The summit will review implementation of the outcomes of the sixth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific, which took place in Astana, Kazakhstan, in 2010. Ministers are anticipated to adopt a Ministerial Declaration that will provide strategic guidance for regional cooperation on environment and development issues. The meeting will provide guidance with respect to the ESCAP programme of work on environment and development.

The meeting will also review the implementation of the 2016 UN Environment Assembly resolutions in Asia and the Pacific (UNEA-2) and provide guidance on regional priorities and actions for UNEA-3, which takes place in December 2017 on the theme, ‘Towards a Pollution-Free Planet.’

On 4 September, ESCAP and UN Environment will convene a one-day meeting of civil society organizations (CSOs) in collaboration with the Thailand Environment Institute (TEI) on behalf of the Asia-Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism (AP-RCEM), in preparation for the Ministerial Summit.