The State Minister for Social Affairs Carolina Cerqueira participated from 28th of February to 04 March, 2022, in Nairobi representing the President of the Republic of Angola João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço in the Second Session of the Fifth Assembly of Nations for the Environment-UNEA-5.2 and the Special Session commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the creation of the United Nations Environment Program -UNEP@50.
The event, which took place at the United Nations compound in Nairobi, was attended by high-level delegations from United Nations Member States, International Organizations and UN partner institutions.
The delegation led by the State Minister for Social Affairs, included the Secretary of State for the Environment, Paula Francisco, Sianga Abílio, Ambassador to the Republic of Kenya and Permanent Representative of Angola to the UN Offices in Nairobi, national directors and officials from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Environment, from the Office of the State Minister for Social Affairs and from the Embassy of Angola in Nairobi.
Speaking before the UNEA-5.2 plenary, the State Minister for Social Affairs Carolina Cerqueira made it known that Angola recently approved a very ambitious legal framework and regulations for the environment aimed at reducing the impact of climate change, both for adaptation and mitigation, in order to build national resilience and to promote sustainable development goals as a win-to-win situation.
The State Minister called for an approach to poverty and hunger reduction in order to mitigate issues related to agriculture so that the issue of fire management is not analyzed independently while at the same time recalled that the issue of drought that Angola also faces makes us more vulnerable to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Meanwhile, in the speech at the event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the creation of the United Nations Environment and Environment Program, called UNEP@50, the State Minister for Social Affairs Carolina Cerqueira made it known that Angola assumed a commitment to the sustainable development since the proclamation of national independence in 1975, two months later in January, the first national environment week was held to address the role of a healthy environment in sustaining economic growth and social progress.
According to the State Minister for Social Affairs since that date Angola has repeatedly reaffirmed this commitment enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic, as a fundamental right and today the environmental agenda is a priority of the Government's National Development Program.
Currently, according to the State Minister for Social Affairs the government of the Republic of Angola has been implementing integrated programs to capture, reserve and distribute water through a wide network of irrigation systems and dams to mitigate the effect of drought and ensure the promotion of family farming with innovative food systems in order to promote well-being, alleviate hunger and poverty and increase the resilience of communities.
In the regional chapter, the State Minister, stated that the Republic of Angola is a partner in the conservation of the Congo Basin Forest through the Maiombe Transfrontier Initiative and also part of one of the largest conservation areas in the world in the Region of the Okavango-Zambezi.
The event commemorating the 50th anniversary of UNEP was attended by the heads of state of Kenya,Uhuru Kenyatta, of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi, of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, and other entities representing Heads of State and Government, and had the virtual intervention by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
UNEA-5.2 adopted 14 Resolutions, Decisions and a Ministerial Declaration, highlighting the Resolution aimed at establishing an International Commission to work on the creation of an international legal instrument that binds Member States in the fight against Plastic Pollution.
The Kingdom of Morocco was elected, on behalf of Africa, to assume the presidency of the Sixth Assembly of the United Nations for the Environment - UNEA-6, for the period 2022-2024.
UNEP@50 focused on topics such as “The UNEP we want”, and promoted two “High Level Dialogues”, one on the last 50 years of UNEP, and the other on the future of UNEP with a view to achieving the Agenda 2030 for people and planet, culminating in the adoption of a Political Declaration on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 73/333, which has the task of monitoring the implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution 72/277 towards the establishment of a Global Pact on the Environment based on International Environmental Law.
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