UNGA Takes a “Moment for Nature”
Last month, UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Abdulla Shahid held a day-long high-level thematic debate entitled “Moment for Nature.” The convening event aimed to contribute ideas towards achieving the level of cohesion needed among global environmental work streams to “keep the 1.5°C target alive,” and to rapidly accelerate the implementation of the SDGs and resilient COVID-19 recoveries.
Member states and stakeholders were in attendance addressing the global environmental fora including climate change, biodiversity loss, land and ocean degradation, and other areas of planetary concern. During the debate, the sessions had speakers from ECOSOC, UNGA, UNEP, and other high-level political leaders who helped shed light on nature-based solutions, best practices, and called for a transformative shift in changing the way we address the climate crisis at all levels.
During the meeting, UNGA President Abdulla Shahid’s opening remarks offered encouragement to all in attendance sharing, “Throughout the 76th session I have come back, time and again, to the theme of hope; hope stemming from the conviction that, despite the daunting challenges we face, our world, our species, truly does have the capacity and capabilities of changing our world.
Moment for Nature closed out with a deeper understanding that a holistic approach will best address the drivers of environmental degradation and strengthen nature’s capacity. Collectively, each and everyone of us possess the “know-how” and can access resources to achieve sustainable transformations, transformations that can deliver us to a healthy, more resilient & bountiful Mother Earth.
