In his opening statement, the President of the 4th UN Environment Assembly, Mr. Siim Kiisler, said that he saw Major Groups and Stakeholders as partners to UNEA and that he had tried to increase the role of the civil society, both during the preparation for UNEA-4 and during the Assembly itself. The ensuing dialogue with the audience lasted over an hour and included the following issues:

Stakeholder involvement in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) process; the challenges related to the implementation of the UNEA resolutions; the opportunity for reflection created by the impending 50th anniversary of the

1972 Stockholm Conference; the role of human rights at UNEA; the lack of political ambition with regard to chemicals and waste; the opportunities generated by economic incentives; the governance of geoengineering; and the possibility of an international governance reform of agriculture.

UN Environment Chief Scientist Dr. Jian Liu Meets with the Major Groups on Tuesday, March 12, 2019. The Major Groups had the opportunity to meet with the UN Environment Chief Scientist Dr. Jian Liu. The audience asked questions about the following topics:

• progress with the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) resolution;

• inclusion of local and indigenous knowledge in science and knowledge systems;

• the relationship between the UN Environment Science Division and divisions working on social issues; selection of priorities for the Science Division; and

• lessons learnt from the most recent Science-Policy-Business Forum.

The Green Tent is the Civil Society Platform at UNEA-4. The Youth Cafe UNEA Monitor is covering some of the green tent events throughout the week of the Assembly.

Best Practices to Build Capacity in Advancing Sustainable Development through Sustainable Consumption and Production – A Session with the Business and Industry Major Group.

On Monday, March 11, 2019, the newly elected UN Environment Executive Director Inger Andersen met with the Major Group Leads and Regional Representatives to UN Environment.

Previous UN Environment Assemblies and other international bodies have taken up the issue of plastic pollution, especially marine plastic litter and microplastics, recognizing it as an increasingly serious issue, which requires an urgent global response. The case against plastic has been gaining strength in the last few years

The closing session of the 2nd Science Policy Business Forum on March 10, 2019, moderated by Axel Threlfall of Reuters, offered highlights from presentations and discussions that had taken place during the two days of the Forum. Speakers from industry, education and civil society were invited to give two-minute overviews of various thematic topics.

For UNEA-4, Switzerland has proposed a resolution on geoengineering, the large-scale technological manipulation of the Earth’s oceans, soils, biosphere and atmosphere to counteract, dilute or delay some symptoms and impacts of climate change. Members of the Environmental Integrity Group (EIG), a negotiating bloc in the UNFCCC consisting of South Korea, Mexico, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Georgia, co-sponsored the resolution with a few other member-states including Burkina Faso, Federated States of Micronesia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Montenegro and New Zealand.

The Global Major Groups attended the first day of the Science-Policy-Business Forum that was organized as part of UNEA-4. Here is a glimpse of one of the sessions held on March 9, 2019.

Environmental and Health Impacts of Food Systems was the topic of a Science-Policy-Business Forum presentation supporting the 6th Global Environmental Outlook Report (GEO6). Introduced by Eddah Kaguthi, panelists included Lorenzo Giovanni Bellu of FAO, Isis Alvarez of Global Forest Coalition, Brett Rierson of World Food Programme, and Professor Andres Guhl of the University of the Andes. The panelists provided provocative presentations and engaged in a robust discussion with attendees following their opening remarks.

The theme of the 4th UN Environment Assembly, Innovative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production, highlights the importance of science and technology in the work of UN Environment. Science propels innovation, while the negative impacts of unsustainable production and consumption can only be effectively mitigated or reversed by decisive science-based leadership and policy making.

Speakers on Friday, March 8, the second and last day of the 18th Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum, highlighted issues of importance including the Aichi Biodiversity Targets maturing in 2020; a potential mismatch between the platforms for local communities and indigenous peoples intended by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties held in December 2018 in Katowice, Poland; climate justice and the dependence of indigenous peoples on their natural environment; and a perceived shift in priority from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for human rights to stronger investment in stakeholder interests.