Ligia Noronha: An Interview with UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head, UNEP New York Office

L igia Noronha serves as the Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). With over three decades of experience in sustainable development, environmental governance, and climate policy, she has been a driving force in global efforts to address the interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Noronha’s leadership has been pivotal in advancing UNEP’s mission to inspire and empower nations to build a sustainable and equitable future.

In this insightful interview, Ligia Noronha, shares her expertise on the critical intersection of climate action, biodiversity conservation, and plant resilience. She discusses UNEP’s strategic initiatives, from nature-based solutions to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, emphasizing the importance of science, policy integration, and community engagement in tackling the “triple planetary crisis.” Noronha also sheds light on the role of indigenous knowledge, the conservation of aromatic plants as cultural heritage, and the importance of public awareness in driving meaningful environmental change. This conversation offers a compelling perspective on the challenges and opportunities in protecting our planet’s biodiversity amidst a rapidly changing climate.

Gayil Nalls:  Could you give us a brief overview of UNEP’s work on climate action, biodiversity, policy, and community engagement?

Ligia Noronha: UNEP’s mission is “to inspire, inform, and enable nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. For over 50 years, UNEP has worked with governments, civil society, the private sector, and UN entities to address humanity’s most pressing environmental challenges – from restoring the ozone layer to protecting the world’s seas and promoting a green, inclusive economy.”

UNEP has three key strategic objectives to support Agenda 2030: climate stability, living in harmony with nature, and a pollution-free planet. It believes that the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution, driven by unsustainable consumption and production, needs to be addressed urgently to enable our collective well-being.

It has been difficult to achieve Agenda 2030 and the sustainable development goals for a variety of reasons, but an unhealthy planet is a key cause for poor health due to water and air pollution, inability to rise out of poverty because climate change induces more frequent and stronger storms and hurricanes, floods and fires keep causing a loss in gains achieved; environmental degradation is causing conflict and disorder and competition for scarce resources and a “push”  for migrations.  

UNEP’s work is based on science and law. It supports the development of multilateral environmental agreements, for example, right now, the negotiations towards an internationally legally binding agreement are underway. The agreements made by Member States are then implemented, UNEP supports providing evidence-based data and science to inform policy decisions and action on the ground, develops sustainable mechanisms to unlock financing, supports capacity-building efforts, and collaborates with different stakeholders – local communities, governments, industry, local bodies – in advancing the implementation of those agreements and in addressing existing and emerging environmental challenges.

How has UNEP’s global strategy on climate change evolved to address the growing impact on biodiversity, especially plant species?

UNEP’s global strategy, the Medium-Term Strategy for 2022-2025, is an integrated strategy seeking to focus on the linkages between climate change, biodiversity and land degradation, and pollution – a strategy that has evolved to understand our current environmental challenge as a “triple planetary crisis,” with climate change, biodiversity conservation and pollution as closely intertwined factors. Rather than approaching biodiversity loss, including the loss of plant species in isolation, UNEP’s strategy fosters responses that take into account the drivers of these interconnected crises and their compounding effects. 

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is also seen as part of UNEP’s response to climate change both to build climate resilience and to mitigate. 

The discussions over the last ten years in the various sessions of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) show this evolution through resolutions for integrated actions, increasingly bringing together thinking and action that speaks to this evolution.¹ The same is also reflected in the discussions and outcomes of global processes in the United Nations, including conferences and summits.

Taking forward both UNEP’s strategy, the UNEA resolutions and supporting Member States deliver the commitments under the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), involves both in-house coordination but also working with the broader UN system as UNEP does not see the environment as a stand-alone issue but rather as a pre-condition to realize wellbeing, health, development, peace, and equity. 

Could you explain how plant conservation fits into the broader context of UNEP’s climate resilience initiatives?

UNEP’s climate resilience initiatives are integrated and keep evolving based on science and new knowledge. Climate change stresses and weakens the resilience of plants. This is especially evident with the increased outbreak of wildfires and invasive pests. UNEP has produced reports on these as part of its Frontiers series on emerging issues of environmental concern. Among other issues, these reports cover the impacts of wildfires but also how climate change is causing phenological shifts, modifying the rhythm of nature, and disrupting the lifecycle patterns of plants and animal species.² Building climate resilience through stronger mitigation and adaptation efforts protects plant species given the interconnections between plants’ growth and temperature, water and soil health. UNEP’s focus is thus on restoring ecological connectivity and biological diversity and, most importantly, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, both carbon and short-lived climate pollutants. These have multiple benefits, from mitigation to building plant resilience. Plant conservation is best achieved in the framework of ecosystem conservation, management, and protection. There is a need for a focus on ecosystem structure and functioning. Habitat management and species recovery interventions, along with land and water management, are part of the focus of our work.

However, more research on plant resilience to climate change can benefit from research and public engagement in botanical gardens, understanding how plants are responding to increased CO2 concentrations and implications to water availability and soil health through factors key to plant growth such as nutrients, water, and heat. This is where a better understanding of the role of indigenous communities and their role in protecting ecosystems and plant species has much to contribute to mainstream science and evidence-based policymaking.

Given the fact that humans are part of the ecosystems that we live in, healthy ecosystems are also necessary to increase the adaptation and resilience capacities of countless communities around the world. For example, tropical forests that are well conserved and used sustainably, have greater resilience and capacity to absorb climate change impacts. In turn, the communities that live in them have a greater capacity to adapt to climate change impacts and preserve their livelihoods.

What role do ecosystems and plant biodiversity play in climate mitigation, and how does UNEP aim to leverage these natural assets to combat climate change?

UNEP advocates for nature-based solutions to climate change.³ In Cali, the 16^th CBD Conference of the Parties spent time to further the interconnections between climate change and biodiversity. Its interventions are global, regional, national, and local. UNEP works with FAO and UNDP in implementing the UN-REDD programme to reduce emissions from forest degradation. Along with FAO, UNEP leads the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration with several other partners. Plant conservation is best achieved in the framework of ecosystem conservation and management. In turn, conservation and restoration of ecosystems can be significant contributors to climate change mitigation. For example, the forest sector can contribute about a third of the emission reductions required by 2030 to stay on target for not more than 2 degrees of climate change.

Are countries aware of the potential loss of aromatic plants that are their unique tangible and intangible olfactory cultural heritage and are countries being encouraged to integrate iconic aromatic plant conservation into their climate strategies?

UNESCO, our sister agency, does considerable work on this issue. It especially works on the cultural heritage of plants. Ethnobiology and medicinal plants have been very central to their science and ecology-related research programmes. A People and Plants handbook came out of the People and Plants Initiative which is now closed and focused on the idea that local people needed to be more involved in, and have the capacity for conservation initiatives.⁴ At UNEP we advocate for the conservation of plants across the board, and we attach great importance to the cultural heritage of all communities, which needs to be taken into account in Member States’ conservation plans while balancing the economic opportunities that aromatic plans offer to some countries i.e., creating a balance between economic growth and conservation. We do not, however, have a specific workstream in this area.

Can you share UNEP’s perspective on the role of indigenous knowledge and traditional practices in supporting plant conservation in the face of climate change?

UNEP’s perspective is that there is an untapped wealth of indigenous knowledge on practices that support plant and ecosystem conservation in the face of climate change. Indigenous peoples must be at the decision-making tables because they are central to the protection of the environment and many other multilateral processes where they used to be overlooked by many stakeholders. 

At UNEP, we have a clear policy of their inclusion in all our processes – we have dedicated focal points in our civil society portfolios, we actively support the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and, most crucially, Indigenous peoples are represented in UNEP’s Major Groups Facilitating Committee. UNEP promotes the sharing and application of Indigenous knowledge and supports the preservation of their customs and traditions, and believes that indigenous people’s voices need to be central in decisions that affect their lives. It engages with indigenous communities and brings their knowledge to various levels.⁵  For example, the upcoming Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) is incorporating Indigenous knowledge; the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration has representatives of indigenous people on its advisory board; UNEP’s defender’s policy promotes the protection of environmental rights defenders, including indigenous people; its policies include important safeguards standards on indigenous people (UNDRIP) and other international instruments. Free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) has been enshrined in the guidelines of UN-REDD. More work to empower Indigenous people on lands that have critical minerals is also included in the UN SG’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals.⁶

How important is public awareness in driving action for plant conservation and climate change mitigation, and what steps are being taken to engage local communities?

Public awareness is key to changing political and social priorities in countries. There is little hope for the preservation of ecosystems and their sustainable use unless this issue takes increased public attention. UNEP advocates towards and directly works on increased public awareness through several campaigns and by requesting Member States to actively work with their constituencies inclusively to enable the realization of those behavioral and legal shifts that are a pre-condition towards a suitable environmental agenda. Examples include: World Environment Day, Clean Seas and Wild for Life campaigns, many international days at the UN General Assembly on environmental issues supported by UNEP and the MEAs, and, more directly related to ecosystems, the Generation Restoration part of the UN Decade on Ecosystems Restoration.

How optimistic are you about achieving global targets for plant biodiversity conservation given the rapid pace of climate change?

Though the challenges in the environmental agenda are major, and often clouded by the discourse on conflicts and security at the multilateral/country level, we are optimistic for the future. We notice growing attention from Member States and the general public on the importance of biodiversity conservation – CBD COP15 in Montreal was a turning point in that sense, and its Global Biodiversity Framework is receiving wide-spread support and joint work across the globe. There are challenges related to financial resources and capacities, but UNEP and several other UN agencies are also tirelessly working on those crucial aspects.

Gayil Nalls, PhD is an interdisciplinary artist and theorist. She is the founder of the World Sensorium Conservancy and the editor of its journal, Plantings.

References

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¹ UN Environment Assembly advances collaborative action on triple planetary crisis

² Frontiers 2022: Noise, Blazes and Mismatches

³ UNEP and nature-based solutions | UNEP – UN Environment Programme

⁴ The People and Plants legacy – UNESCO Digital Library

⁵ Indigenous peoples and their communities | UNEP – UN Environment Programme