The Fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) is an opportunity for Member States and Stakeholders to share best practices for sustainability and create momentum for governments to build back better through green and sustainable recovery plans, following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On March 1st as part of the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly hosted by the United Nations Environment Program, took place, in Nairobi, the event "The Crossroads of Sustainability, Climate Change and Health: practical approaches and lessons for the post-covid cities and territories" organized by the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy, the International Federation for Housing and Planning, the Committee on Environmental and Health crisis and the Conference or INGOs and the ELISAN network (European Local Inclusion and Social Action network).

The session brought together global professionals, city and regional leaders and NGOs to discuss concrete approaches to address the current challenge and crisis in cities around the world. In an historical moment in which more than half of the world population lives in large urban areas, a figure that will reach two thirds by 2050, it is necessary to respond to urban problems: the increase in social inequalities, the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and caring issues.

The moderator of the meeting was Claudio Acioly, well-known architect and urban planner very active at international level, senior manager of UN-Habitat for 12 years and currently associated staff and visiting professor with the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies-IHS of the Erasmus University Rotterdam and also member of the council of IFHP.

Among the speakers present during the session Jorge Abrahao, General Director at the Sustainable Cities Institute; Anne-Marie Chavanon, current chair of the Committee on Environmental and Health crisis in the Conference do INGOs of the Council of Europe; Roberto Ciambetti, President of the Veneto Regional Council (Italy); Jose Chong, Program Management Officer at UN-Habitat; Arun Jain, US and Indian educated urban designer and urban strategist; Elcio Batista, the vice-mayor of Fortaleza; Naomi Hoogervoorst, head of the Urban Lab of UN-Habitat, and Eric Piolle, President of the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy and Mayor of Grenoble, the city that will host the IOPD Conference in December 2022. The Mayor of Grenoble stressed the importance of learning and acquiring inspiration from other cities through collaboration, city-to-city exchange that leads to innovation and creativity in citizen participation, participatory democracy and best practices in curbing GHG emissions.

In the approximately 90 minutes of the meeting various issues were touched on starting from the environmental and health emergency with the prospect, however still distant, of a zero-emission city and the intervention in this regard by Elcio Batista, vice-mayor of Fortaleza in Brazil; the new economic, environmental and social needs resulting from the historical period in which we live, in the words Roberto Ciambetti and Eric Piolle; and finally the new approaches and lessons for good governance, with the aim of identifying direct approaches to respecting the environment and post-Covid recovery.

Video of the session

Report of the session

Concept note

UNEA web page