Today marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme, which is being celebrated at the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in Nairobi, Kenya.
For 50 years, UNEP has played a key role in enabling partnerships between stakeholders and industries across nature- and climate-related issues. Founded at the request of UNEP in 1974, Ipieca has participated in several UNEP-led collaborations, which have resulted in the oil and gas sector strengthening its action for nature to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and advance the energy transition, in line with the theme of UNEA-5.
Five decades of working together
UNEP regularly provides input into the Ipieca programme and strategy, contributing to our stakeholder panels - most recently in March 2020, for the development of Ipieca's 2021-2024 strategy.
Ipieca's non-lobby capacity has enabled it to form a longstanding and trusted relationship with UNEP, progressing areas of shared interest such as methane, low-emissions transport, low-emission pathways and biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) management.
Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV): Over many years, UNEP and Ipieca have explored the barriers and drivers for a low-emission energy transition, including through the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles which helped end the use of leaded petrol globally in July 2021. Ipieca Executive Director Brian Sullivan joined UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen at the press conference announcing this historic achievement, which has been estimated to prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths per year, increase IQ points among children and save USD 2.44 trillion for the global economy, and decrease crime rates.
UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC): UNEP-WCMC, with whom Ipieca has a memorandum of understanding, contributes valuable input into Ipieca guidance documents which provide leadership on managing BES issues within the sector. Ipieca and UNEP-WCMC most recently launched the Biodiversity and ecosystem services horizon scanning report 2021, which explores and identifies key drivers, challenges and opportunities for BES management in the oil and gas industry.
Together Ipieca and UNEP-WCMC deliver BES peer-to-peer training workshops globally through the Oil for Development programme, raising further awareness and building capacity on BES management in the industry.
Ipieca collaborates on several other UNEP-WCMC initiatives, such as the Proteus Partnership, which provides companies with the biodiversity information needed for better-informed decisions and to support the development and improvement of key global biodiversity resources.
UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD): The UN CBD underpins Ipieca's work on BES. The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and UNEP's long-term strategic approach to mainstreaming biodiversity will further encourage the private sector to make more ambitious plans and scale up their contributions to help meet global conservation goals. Ipieca continues to support the implementation of the GBF and has provided feedback on the draft framework from an industry perspective.
Building on the learnings from these five decades of partnership and encouraging further collaboration to advance the energy transition is key, and Ipieca looks forward to continuing its strong collaboration with UNEP to continue strengthening the oil, gas and alternative energy industry's action for nature and climate to achieve the SDGs.
