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This HLPF side event shared how the Satoyama Initiative teaches that living in harmony with nature requires communities to consider issues of biodiversity, climate change, and zoonotics simultaneously.

In 2017, half the population in mountainous areas faced food insecurity—and that was before the pandemic. This HLPF side event heard that building back better will require rethinking economic growth, with responsible production and consumption patterns.

Many participants raised the need for a science-policy interface (SPI) on chemicals and wastes—noting any such body should be global, authoritative, “horizon scanning,” prestigious, independent and inclusive.

Organized by the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, this HLPF side event aimed to spark discussion on turning fashion into a driver of sustainable development and pandemic recovery and provide countries guidance to achieve this.

ARFSD 7 adopted the “Brazzaville Declaration”, and a summary report articulating African priorities, policy options and recommendations for the regions input to the 2021 HLPF.

Delegates from the private sector, civil society, and government met to address issues such as artificial intelligence for environmental action, pollution prevention and management, and integrated solutions for low-carbon, resource-efficient, inclusive societies. The outcomes will inform discussions at UNEA-5.

The key focus of the delegates was to discuss and agree on a Chair’s Summary to inform the fifth meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) on how best to tackle marine litter and microplastics.

The Council meetings included extensive discussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, deliberating the pandemic’s impact on project management, and considered a white paper by the GEF COVID-19 Task Force outlining how environmental action can reduce future threats of disease outbreak. The GEF Council also endorsed a new private sector engagement strategy, outlining how the GEF will work in a systematic manner with industry groups, companies, and investors to reverse unsustainable global trends and deliver global environmental benefits.

Options to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, avoiding future pandemics, and strategic spending of pandemic recovery packages featured prominently in a week that emphasized, "Partnership is the new leadership."