Summary
Delegates at the Open-Ended Committee of Permanent Representatives (OECPR-2) met in plenary all morning, where they discussed the role of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Environment Assembly of the UNEP (UNEA) in delivering on the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They also considered the draft Global Thematic Report on “Healthy Environment, Healthy People.” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner highlighted UNEP's 2018-21 Medium-Term Strategy (MTS) as a “stepping stone” for facilitating Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) delivery, and stressed UNEA's key role in facilitating synergies across the UN system. A panel of ministers and senior officials from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Solomon Islands, and the Netherlands discussed the issues, followed by open debate among delegates.
In the afternoon, negotiations on draft resolution text continued in Clusters 1 and 4, which addressed, inter alia: implementation of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Accelerated Modalities of Action, or SAMOA Pathway; role, functions and follow-up to the Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific; and three resolutions on the impacts of armed conflict on the environment.
IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB Meeting Coverage, provided daily web coverage and daily reports from OECPR-2. In addition, IISD Reporting Services, has published a summary and analysis from OECPR-2 in HTML and PDF formats. Available in ENB Mobile at: http://enb.iisd.mobi/unep-oecpr2016/.
Photos by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth
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Morning Plenary
Delegates during the morning plenary
Julia Pataki, CPR Chair
Cluster 2 and 4 Chair John Moreti, Botswana
Cluster 3 Chair Corinna Enders, Germany
Cluster 1 Chair Pedro Escosteguy
Cardoso, Brazil
Cluster 5 Chair Raza Bashir Tarar, Pakistan
Delegates stand for a moment of silence to honor former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP
Judi Wakhungu, Cabinet Secretary for Environment,
Water and Natural Resources, Kenya
Herman Sips, Senior Policy Coordinator, Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, the Netherlands
Kare Chawicha Debessa, State Minister, Ministry of Environment, Forest and
Climate Change, Ethiopia
Samuel Manetoali, Minister of Environment, Climate Change,
Disaster Management and Meteorology,
Solomon Islands
Kai Simon Yuen, Norway
Rosemary Paterson, New Zealand
Nebojša Kaluđerović, Montenegro
Marcela Nicodemos, Brazil
UNEP Side Event on Extractive Industries
A graphic illustrating the UNEP side event on extractive industries and the environment
Oli Brown, UNEP
Ligia Noronha, UNEP
Cluster 1
Delegates discuss matters related to Cluster 1
Lloyd Gabriel Pascal, Dominica
Frances Brown, Samoa
Jill Hanna, EU
Cluster 4
Delegates discuss matters related to Cluster 4
Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Ukraine
Vladimir Lenev, Russian Federation
Around the Venue
Delegates speak with the UNEP Secretariat
Delegates from Egypt read the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB)
Kimo Goree, Vice President, International Institute for
Sustainable Development (IISD), with Abdullah K. Tawlah
and Jamal Ali Bamaileh, Saudi Arabia
Delegates meet before the start of plenary
Delegates meet in huddles outside of plenary
Sibylle Vermont, Switzerland, speaks with Jan Dusik, UNEP
Vladimir Lenev, Russian Federation, speaks with Jiří Hlaváček, former Secretary of Governing Bodies, UNEP
Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary, Basel, Rotterdam and
Stockholm (BRS) Conventions Secretariat, speaks
with Cyrille-Lazare Siewe, UNEP
Delegates between sessions
Posters display UNEP's 40 years of environmental leadership