Africa-Press – Liberia. , Kenya — The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wilson Tarpeh, has reaffirmed Liberia’s commitment in fulfilling its national obligations under the multilateral environmental agreements for which the country is a party to many.
In doing so, Mr. Tarpeh said, Liberia will continue to work with all to address environmental challenges, promoting economic development and ensuring sustainable livelihood for its citizens.
Mr. Tarpeh made the remarks when he represented Liberia at the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2), which took place online and in Nairobi from February 28 to March 2, 2022.
Hosted by the UN Environment Programme, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) brought together representatives of the 193 Member States of the UN, businesses, civil society and other stakeholders to agree on policies to address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
The overall theme for UNEA-5 was “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” highlighting the pivotal role nature plays in our lives and in social, economic and environmental sustainable development.
UNEA-5 was an opportunity for Member States to share best practices for sustainability. It aimed to create momentum for governments to build on and catalyze impact on multilateral environmental efforts to protect and restore the natural world on which our economies and societies depend.
The EPA boss lauded the United Nations Environment(UNEP) for the stewardship role it continues to play in promoting the protection and management of the environment and more important to bring its Member States all together despite the COVID pandemic which had led to the loss of precious lives and disruption of the global economy.
He said the world continues to be faced with major environmental challenges affecting human development, indicating that these challenges are climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification, illicit wide life hunting and artisanal mining, waste management, pollution of water bodies and the air, plastic pollution and many others that have claimed the attention of the global community.
“Despite on what we agreed in Vietnam four years ago, the global community is still challenge with many of these environmental issues which continue to degrade the environment affecting the livelihood of the global population making it difficult to attain the sustainable development goals,” Mr. Tarpeh said.
“Cognizant of the facts of these environmental challenges, we have all worked for the past years through the the available international architectures to address these environmental challenges at our respective national levels to fulfill our national contributions in solving these environmental issues.”
He said under the leadership of President George Weah, the government through the EPA hosted and organized the First Post COVID Environmental and Climate Change Conference, which brought all relevant stakeholders which led to the formulation of a sectoral declaration in working together to implement Liberia’s Revised Nationally Determined Contributions.
The EPA also completed the latest Forest Inventory, produced a Map on Ecosystem Services, and acceded to the Kigali Amendment in addressing the depletion of the ozone layer.
The EPA also developed Liberia’s National Adaptation Plan, updated the State of Environment Reports, developed a five-year Strategic Action Plan to address Environmental Governance and Leadership in Liberia, and established an Undergraduate and Graduate Programme in Environmental Science. The achievements mentioned are intended to address environmental challenges confronting Liberia, Mr. Tarpeh added.
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