The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), the world’s top decision-making body on the environment, opened its seventh session in Nairobi on Monday, aiming to take action on critical environmental challenges amid deep geopolitical divisions.
Global emissions have continued to climb, the world is not on track to meet biodiversity goals and negotiations over plastic pollution have reached a standstill, threatening livelihoods and economies across the world.
Meeting under the theme “Advancing sustainable solutions for a resilient planet,” UNEA-7 convenes at a time when multilateralism is under intense strain. As several officials acknowledged, wars, protectionist economic policies and widening global divisions are undermining the ability of nations to reach consensus on climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution — issues that require collective action.
Yet in Nairobi, on the UN’s campus, there was a sense that the world wants to push forward with action.
Opening the session, UNEA president Abdullah Bin Ali Al-Amri of Oman reminded delegates that despite the turbulence, multilateral cooperation remains the only credible pathway.
“UNEA was created to be the conscience of the global environment, a forum where science and diplomacy converge to safeguard the planet that sustains us all. Multilateralism delivers when we pair science, solidarity and solutions,” he said.
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We all live on the same planet and face the same challenges. If my neighbour is suffering from climate change, so am I.
Inger Andersen, executive director, United Nations Environment Programme
Al-Amri urged countries to pursue ambition, solidarity and science-based decision-making. Incrementalism, he warned, is no longer adequate.
“Incrementalism is insufficient to cope with the pace of change. Commitments must translate into projects, investments, legal frameworks and measurable gains,” he said.
His remarks acknowledged the tension between rising global fragmentation and the need for collective environmental governance — a theme that resurfaced across several speeches.
UNEP’s executive director, Inger Andersen, highlighted the contradictions shaping the environmental moment, plagued by worsening climate impacts and shrinking biodiversity on one hand and breakthroughs such as the high seas treaty and progress on adaptation funding and forests at recent climate negotiations in Belém, Brazil.
“Environmental challenges are accelerating,” she warned. “The rise in average global temperatures will likely exceed 1.5° Celsius [2.7° Fahrenheit] within the next decade.”
She did not shy away from describing the geopolitical context.
“The world is in turbulent geopolitical waters, which adds stresses and strains to multilateral processes,” Andersen said. Still, she appealed to delegates to “reach across the table for consensus” and “once again summon up that famous and indomitable ‘Nairobi spirit.’”
Despite the tensions — most notably divisions between major powers, growing North-South mistrust and an emerging “America First” posture in Washington — Andersen insisted that environmental diplomacy still works when countries choose compromise over paralysis.
UNEA, she noted, has brought nearly 6,000 registered participants from more than 170 countries to Nairobi this week, an indicator of enduring multilateral engagement.
Host country Kenya sought to position UNEA-7 as a moment to reinforce global cohesion. Deborah Barasa, Kenya cabinet secretary for environment, climate change and forestry, welcomed delegates with a reminder of the stakes.
“The time for small, cautious steps has passed; what we need now is bold, integrated and inclusive action,” she said. “These crises cannot be tackled in isolation.”
Barasa underscored Kenya’s commitment to environmental governance and called on countries to ensure that UNEA-7 ends with a strong ministerial declaration and actionable resolutions.
“Partnership is not optional; it is absolutely essential.”
A recurring theme across the opening speeches was the widening gap between science and policy. Several reports produced by the host of UNEA-7 have warned that global emissions continue to rise, while the current Global Environment Outlook underscored the full scale of the triple planetary crisis.
Al-Amri stressed that UNEP’s own assessments show that the crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are “immense” but still “surmountable” if countries act at scale.
Andersen highlighted the forthcoming Global Environment Outlook, saying it “lays out pathways to transformation that would deliver higher global GDP, fewer deaths, less hunger and less poverty — through action on climate, on nature and on pollution.”
Despite these clear scientific pathways, the planet continues to warm, ecosystems continue to degrade and pollution continues to rise. The officials’ warnings reflected a mounting concern that multilateral environmental agreements are outpaced by the severity and speed of environmental decline.
Outside the formal plenary, youth and civil society groups echoed these concerns, particularly around the fragility of global cooperation.
The presented at UNEA-7, warns that the world faces “a deepening crisis of international cooperation” marked by geopolitical realignment and a “widening trust deficit.”
Young delegates argue that the multilateral system is “off track on nearly all global goals” and that communities facing the brunt of climate impacts are losing faith in long-promised finance and support.
At the same time, they acknowledged emerging “signs of renewed ambition” following the Pact for the Future and other global agreements, urging UNEA to match rhetoric with action.
The negotiations ahead will cover 15 draft resolutions and two draft decisions, with debates expected on plastics, minerals, chemicals, artificial intelligence, water governance and the deep sea. There is cautious optimism that UNEA-7 will deliver a strong ministerial declaration and advance UNEP’s Medium-Term Strategy for 2026-29.
But much depends on whether nations can bridge divides at a moment when multilateral environmental governance is being tested by polarisation and shifting power dynamics.
“Our success this week depends not only on the outcomes we adopt but also on how we reach them, through trust, transparency, the spirit of compromise and inclusiveness,” Al-Amri said.
Andersen echoed that sentiment: “We all live on the same planet and face the same challenges. If my neighbour is suffering from climate change, so am I.”
The opening day of UNEA-7 acknowledged that global fragmentation is real, but so is the collective determination to keep moving. As Barasa put it, “UNEA-7 will not just talk about the future; it will help create it.”
This story was published with permission from Mongabay.com.
