Fifth Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific

Registration

Opening Performance (30 min)

• Cultural Programme

Welcome address.

• H.E. Mr. Naseer Ahamed, Minister of Environment, Sri Lanka (7 min).
• H.E. Ms. Leila Benali, President of 6th United Nations Environment Assembly and Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development of Morocco (Video Message, 7 min).
• Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (7 min).

Keynote address

• Prime Minister, Fiji (Video Message)
• Vice President, Islamic Republic of Iran (7 min)
• Representative of Major Group for Children and Youth (4 min)
• H.E. Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Sri Lanka (10 min)

• H.E. Mr. Lim Sang-jun, Vice Minister of Environment, Republic of Korea, and Chair Representative of the Fourth Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific (7 min) (Chair).
• Election of officers and Adoption of the agenda.

The three planetary environmental crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are interrelated and often transboundary in nature and highlights the urgent need for collective global and regional actions to mitigate climate change, halt biodiversity loss, and reduce environmental pollution to ensure the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
Regional multilateral actions are the bridge between global aspirational targets, such as the SDGs, Paris Agreement and Kunming-Montreal Framework, and operational targets in the national policies and strategies. In this context, science-based decision making for regional multilateral actions should be focused on knowledge sharing, capacity building and science harnessed national policies and regional multilateral cooperative programmes and actions.
Further strengthening the linkages between global and regional environmental governance mechanisms including through, for example, relevant UN Environment Assembly Resolutions and Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) priorities being considered more systematically by regional intergovernmental and thematic forums and processes.
The ministers, Heads of the Delegation, and other high-level representatives will have an opportunity to share perspectives on well-coordinated global and regional mechanisms and effective actions to achieve various MEA targets including SDG targets, related to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution in Asia and the Pacific. Ministers and other high-level representatives are also invited to share successes, best practices, and suggest concrete actions towards achieving sustainable multilateral actions at national, subregional, and regional levels.

• Introduction by the Secretariat
• Country statements

Continued Agenda item 6: Ministerial Dialogue on Sustainable Multilateral Actions to Tackle Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Pollution in Asia and the Pacific

• Country statements
• Stakeholders Statements (Intergovernmental, International, UN Organizations, Major Groups and Stakeholders)

Stockholm+50 has emphasized the global interconnectedness of the environment and the need to collectively address the three planetary environmental crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – for present and future generations. The Stockholm+50 called for greater accountability to deliver on national and international responsibilities and address the three planetary environmental crises in integrated ways. Reinforce and reinvigorate the multilateral system, through ensuring an effective rules-based multilateral system that supports countries in delivering on their national and global commitments, to ensure fair and effective multilateralism, strengthening the environmental rule of law, including by promoting convergence and synergies within the United Nations system and between multilateral environmental agreements. Cooperations by all actors is essential to accelerate the transfer of knowledge, technology, and know-how, and to scale up the availability and access to and affordability of digital goods and services and critical infrastructure in developing countries
The overall goal of strengthening the engagement of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in UNEA-6 is to promote coherence between the resolutions of the Assembly and the decisions of the governing bodies of the MEAs. Besides, multilateral cooperation is to support the Environment Assembly in enhancing its relationship with the MEAs and its contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, by strengthening convergence of action and dialogue on common strategies and sharing of experiences, while providing increased visibility to the decisions of the governing bodies of the MEAs.
Ministers, Heads of the Delegation, MEA Secretariats, other stakeholders, and representatives will have an opportunity to share their Asia Pacific regional perspectives on effectiveness of the multilateral environmental cooperations, including finance, technology, and capacity building, at national, subregional, and regional levels, to achieve internationally agreed goals including SDGs on climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution

• Chair (Bureau Member)
• Introduction by the Secretariat (UNEP DED)
• Panelist
  • Speaker A
  • Speaker B
  • Speaker C
  • Speaker D

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Under this item, the Ministers and Heads of Delegation may wish to take note of the key elements of the report of the Senior Officials Meeting and draft outcome of the Fifth Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific.

Adoption of the outcome of the Fifth Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific
The Ministers and Heads of Delegation will consider the draft report of the Senior Officials Meeting and the draft ministerial outcome for adoption. The outcome will reflect policy perspectives and commitments in Asia Pacific to address the theme of the six sessions of the United Nations Environment Assembly ‘‘Effective, inclusive, and sustainable multilateral actions to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution’.

Closing remarks

• UNEP representative
• Chair of the Fifth Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific

Gala Dinner hosted by Government of Sri Lanka