As Chair of the Forum since February 2021, Costa Rica has hosted the regional meeting with the aim of strengthening multilateral environmental cooperation in the face of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Opening the meeting on Thursday, Costa Rica’s Minister of Environment and Energy, Andrea Meza, urged Latin America and the Caribbean to speed up implementation of the 2030 Agenda as these three crises further expose their weaknesses.
“While this region is grappling with the planet’s triple crisis, our weaknesses are exposed, and we must commit to accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda,” Meza said.
The Costa Rican minister emphasized that solidarity motivates us to work with more efforts to find better solutions to pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss in order to bring about real change in societies and economies.
Interim Foreign Minister Christian Guerreme welcomed the participating delegations, and indicated that important decisions will be recognized in this meeting to be discussed at the next United Nations Environment Assembly.
He said we look forward to the adoption of texts of particular importance, such as the draft resolution on an internationally binding legal instrument on plastic pollution, or the draft resolution on nature-based solutions.
Guillerme expressed his confidence that spaces such as this and others in the arena of pluralism promote joint action to overcome the crises that afflict us.
For her part, the Director of the United Nations Environment Program for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jacqueline Alvarez, said that the United Nations in 2022 calls on all sectors to enter into an emergency mode with regard to the environmental crises facing the planet.
Our countries in Latin America and the Caribbean face enormous challenges to resolve these crises and protect their people, especially the most vulnerable. Alvarez stressed that this regional forum is an action-oriented collaboration platform on which UNEP has worked proudly since its inception.
Nearly twenty delegations headed by environment ministers and high-level authorities are personally participating in the event and nearly six delegations.
Attendees will prepare as a region for the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, which will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, in February and March.
jha / ale
“Award-winning alcohol trailblazer. Hipster-friendly internetaholic. Twitter ninja. Infuriatingly humble beer lover. Pop culture nerd.”