Delivered by: Kalekristos Zerisenay, First Secretary, Embassy of the State of Eritrea to Kenya and Permanent Representation to UNEP and UN-Habitat
Ms. President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
All protocol observed.
On behalf of my government, allow me to express my gratitude to the people and government of the Republic of Kenya for the warm hospitality. Let me also congratulate the President and Bureau of UNEA-6 for the excellent leadership. I also appreciate the Chair and Bureau of the Committee of Permanent Representatives as well as the Executive Director of UNEP and the Secretariat for their diligence in organizing this important session.
Ms. President,
The status of the global environment is known to everyone, and I will not go into details. There is also a general agreement that the pace and scale of our responses to environmental crises are far behind the required.
Attempts to create hierarchy of importance among environmental challenges has the danger of undermining global solidarity. As we are living in different geographic regions of varied levels of development, environmental challenges that we face and our priorities and capabilities to respond to the challenges may not be completely the same. Regardless of these minor differences, the only way out of these crises is a united action and a holistic approach to the environment. After all, the various sections of the environment are interrelated and interdependent.
Ms. President,
The plethora of Funds and Secretariats of Multilateral Environmental Agreements that we have created to help us combat climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, land degradation, desertification and other environmental challenges have become a matter of concern.
The different modes operandi they pursue, the uneven human and financial resources mobilization capacity they have, and the lack of coordination among themselves and with UNEP and UNEA necessitates consideration of reform and restructuring to achieve coherence, effectiveness and efficiency.
Ms. President,
In line with its development strategy, Eritrea is making efforts to achieve growth and development without compromising the environment. Transitioning to clean energy, conservation of soil and water, implementation of afforestation and reforestation programs, establishment of protected areas and area-based effective conservation, planting mangroves and date palms along the Red Sea coast, curbing all kinds of hunting, criminalizing illegal trade on wild animals and plants and their products, banning of single-use plastics and hazardous chemicals and waste are some of the measures that Eritrea is taking seriously.
Ms. President,
As we may know, the rusting ship carrying more than 1.1 million barrels of oil off the coast of Yemen has been a matter of concern for countries of the Red Sea and beyond. Eritrea has consistently notified the United Nations about the danger posed by the vessel which was at the brink of breakaway, and requested for a speedy action to offload the oil from the fleet.
The oil was safely transferred to another fleet last year and the risk of oil spill in the Red Sea is successfully avoided. On this occasion, Eritrea would like to extend its gratitude to the United Nations and all parties who have contributed to the saving of the Red Sea from environmental catastrophe.
As I conclude, I would like to congratulate the outgoing presidency for the successful accomplishments. I would also like to welcome and wish success for the incoming presidency.
I thank you for your kind attention!!
