The European Union and a host of other nations on Tuesday committed $35 million to the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), the United Nations Environment said.
PAGE brings together five UN agencies supporting countries in greening their economies and tackling environmental challenges, while promoting better jobs and stable economic growth.
The announcement came on the penultimate day of the three-day long UN Environment Assembly in the Kenyan capital, which brings together over 4,000 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, UN officials and civil society representatives.
The countries that made contributions to PAGE are Finland, Germany, Norway, South Korea and Sweden.
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"In order to move towards a sustainable and pollution-free future, we need a broad alliance of all stakeholders, one that transcends the traditional divides between industry and environmentalists," said Germany's State Secretary for Environment Jochen Flasbarth, who is heading his country's delegation here, as per an official statement.
"PAGE fosters these urgently needed partnerships and alliances, which is a substantial contribution to the goal of this year's UN Environment Assembly. For this very reason, we transferred an additional euro 13 million to the PAGE Trust Fund."
The resolve to transform economies into a vehicle for sustainable development was echoed by all delegates in attendance.
"The EU is committed to cooperate with developing countries, but also to take action domestically, as shown by the ongoing implementation of the circular economy action plan," said Daniel Calleja, Director General for the Environment, European Commission.
More than 90 countries have benefited from PAGE's global and national capacity building and South-North Knowledge exchange programmes.
PAGE is supporting policy reforms in 13 countries, with the support of eight funding partner countries, all working to enable economic and investment decisions that play a fundamental role in moving towards sustainable development and a pollution-free planet.
"As this partnership grows and helps more nations green their economies, we will see leaders increasingly champion sustainable growth that reduces emissions and reliance on finite resources," said UN Environment Executive Director Erik Solheim.
He said this new funding would help expand the great work that has been done so far and move closer to a pollution-free planet.
Initiatives such as PAGE are increasingly important as the world faces climate change and other environmental challenges such as pollution, which is the focus of the UN Environment Assembly.
Everyone on the earth is affected by pollution, according to a new UN Environment report, "The Executive Director's Report: Towards a Pollution-Free Planet".
Overall, environmental degradation causes nearly one in four of all deaths worldwide, or 12.6 million people a year, and the widespread destruction of key ecosystems.
Over a dozen resolutions are on the table at the assembly, including new approaches to tackle air pollution, which is the single biggest environmental killer, claiming 6.5 million lives annually.
(Vishal Gulati is in Nairobi at the invitation of United Nations Environment to cover its third annual session. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
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