UNEP Deputy Executive Director in Brussels amplifying UN call for ambitious climate action

Joyce Msuya, Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, presents the outcomes of the UN Climate Action Summit to members of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs

In the week following the UN Climate Action Summit, Ms Joyce Msuya, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Deputy Executive Director, was in Brussels for a series of meetings and public events, many of which aimed at keeping the momentum for ambitious climate action to address the global climate emergency.

Ms Msuya discussed ways to increase cooperation for climate action in various high level bilateral meetings with Directors from the European Commission (DG ENV, DG DEVCO, EEAS) in particular in light of the emerging environmental priorities at the EC and its new Green Deal, as well as with officials from the Belgian Government and Heads of Offices of various UN agencies.

On 2 October Ms Msuya was invited by the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs to brief the European politicians about the Climate Action Summit outcomes and how the UN plans to follow up on what has been agreed. This was an opportunity to share her views about expectations for the future and policy challenges that lie ahead.

In her address to the parliamentarians, Ms. Msuya described the Summit as one of “absolute dynamism and commitment” and where there was “quite a bit of impatience” about the needed action at the same time, in particular by the youth who were very visible all along.

The Summit illustrated the strength of multilateralism, she told the Parliament, bringing all stakeholders together around the most developmental challenge that we face: climate change. Overall huge commitments were made at several levels, she said and she mentioned some major outcomes, including: 

• 65 countries and major sub-national economies like California, that committed to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while 70 countries announced they will either boost their national action plans by 2020 or have started the process of doing so.
• Over 100 business leaders, who announced concrete targets to speed up their transitions from a grey to a green economy
• 87 major companies pledged to reduce emissions by 2050
• 130 banks signed up to align their business with the Paris Agreement goals

Ms. Msuya highlighted in particular the role Nature Based Solutions (NBS) can play in fighting against climate action and for achieving the SDGs. The NBS Coalition, co-led by China and New Zealand, launched the NBS for Climate Manifesto, a plan to unlock the full potential of nature for climate action, with the support of more than 70 governments, private sector, civil society and international organizations, accompanied by nearly 200 initiatives and best practices from around the world.

UNEP has been supporting this work and has been tasked to follow up on the use of nature, for instance of forests. She announced that it will convene a group of friends to follow up with the partners. Watch the full recording of the session here.

On the last day of her mission to Brussels, Ms Msuya had the opportunity to lead the first UNEP-EU “Africa Dialogue,” where high representatives of the UN Environment Programme and the European Commission (including DG ENV, DG DEVCO, DG CLIMA, DG RTD, EEAS and JRC) engaged in an exchange of knowledge around climate action, circularity, and biodiversity and their interlinkages in the African Continent. A key takeaway of the session was the increased need to emphasize how environmental action, in the form of biodiversity conservation efforts or more circular economy sectorial approaches, could result in the creation of new job opportunities in Africa.

This triggered a rich discussion around future engagements in these fields in Africa. The talks were particularly relevant ahead of the AMCEN meeting  (from 11 to 15 November in Durban, South Africa) and in light of the EU Green Deal  and paved the way for the visit of the Executive Director of UNEP, Ms Inger Andersen in December 2019.

More information about the high-level Africa Dialogue can be found at the following link: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/unep/discussions/un-environment-programme-and-european-commission-hold-high-level-policy-dialogue-africa )