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KENYA / UN ENVIRONMENT ASSEMBLY
STORY: KENYA / UN ENVIRONMENT ASSEMBLY
TRT: 1.30
SOURCE: UNEP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 29 MAY 2014, NAIROBI, KENYA
1. Wide shot, United Nations Nairobi Headquarters
2. Wide shot, dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director:
“Every member state represented in the General Assembly of the United Nations is now automatically represented in this environmental governance body. The first ever United Nations Environment Assembly this June in Nairobi will attract actors from across the world. We expect delegations from over 160 countries, possibly more. We expect over 100 minister-level representatives leading their delegations.”
4. Med shot, dais
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director:
“We will assemble here truly the leaders of the environmental community and bring them together with key decision makers from many other sectors of government and society. It will be a historic event, not only in terms of the evolution into a new United Nations Environment Assembly, it also marks a milestone in the very strong partnership, and that is why we wanted to have this press conference together this morning, of Kenya and UNEP.”
6. Med shot, dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations:
“We’re very proud to be hosting this event, and to that end, we have made every measure, we have taken every step, to ensure that the delegations who come to Nairobi, will find a Nairobi that is safe and inviting to them.”
8. Med shot, press
The First UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) will convene in Nairobi, Kenya, from 23 to 27 June 2014. This marks a historic milestone in the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 43-year history and is expected to be attended by high-level delegations from over 160 UN Member and Observer States.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, said “every member state represented in the General Assembly of the United Nations is now automatically represented in this environmental governance body” and the “first ever” UNEA “will attract actors from across the world.”
Steiner said UNEA “will assemble here truly the leaders of the environmental community and bring them together with key decision makers from many other sectors of government and society. “
He said “it will be a historic event, not only in terms of the evolution into a new United Nations Environment Assembly, it also marks a milestone in the very strong partnership, and that is why we wanted to have this press conference together this morning, of Kenya and UNEP.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the President of the UN General Assembly, Ministers of Environment and Foreign Affairs and Chief Executives of a number of international organisations are set to attend the newly-established UNEA that will bring together over 1,200 high-level participants from government, business and civil society.
UNEA is the newly constituted UN high-level platform for decision making on environment that is tasked to chart a new course in the way the international community addresses environmental sustainability challenges. More than 80 Ministers, Vice-Ministers, Secretaries of State, as well as heads of international convention secretariats, have confirmed their attendance, so far.
For Kenya, the host country of UNEP's headquarters for over four decades, the convening of UNEA in its capital city of Nairobi marks another milestone in this pioneering partnership.
Ambassador Martin Kimani, Kenya's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said, his country was “very proud to be hosting this event, and to that end, we have made every measure, we have taken every step, to ensure that the delegations who come to Nairobi, will find a Nairobi that is safe and inviting to them.”
As the new governing body of UNEP, as well as the world's Environment Assembly, UNEA has the mandate to make strategic decisions and provide political guidance in the work of UNEP, and promote a strong science-policy interface.
The first UNEA session is expected to deliver a series of outcomes that would spell out concrete actions to address the key environmental challenges discussed at UNEA. Where appropriate, UNEA may also recommend draft resolutions for adoption at the United Nations General Assembly for UN system-wide action.
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