UNEA-7 Cities and Regions Summit: a stronger multilevel environmental governance

As the 7^th session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-7), the world’s highest-level decision-making body on environmental matters has passed, the Cities and Regions Summit conveners, led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) with UN-Habitat, the Global Cities Hub, ICLEI and UCLG, are looking toward implementation of the decisions taken there.

UNEP’s recently published Summit Report highlights key messages from mayors, governors and other city representatives, as well as State representatives, heads of international organizations and NGOs, including the Global Cities Hub. Across all interventions, speakers underlined that empowering cities and regions is essential to advancing sustainable solutions and turning global commitments into reality, but this requires strengthened multi-level governance to ensure their systemic inclusion in multilateral processes, alongside significantly improved access to finance.

The Global Cities Hub facilitated the participation of Mayor Balakhsher Qazi of Turbat (Pakistan), Mayor Ali Nizar of Addu (Maldives) and of H.E. Governor Sakaja Arthur Johnson (Nairobi). Mayor Qazi and Mayor Nizar reported the outcomes of the Cities and Regions Summit at the opening of the plenary session of UNEA-7, ensuring that the voice of LRGs is heard by Member States and all stakeholders.

Besides, the GCH closely cooperated with the Permanent Mission of Switzerland in Nairobi and with H.E. Amb. Mirko Giulietti, who encouraged national and local governments to forge a joint approach on moving from words to action.

We stressed the importance of speaking to Member States, showcasing good local examples to influence negotiations and resolutions: “Local-level innovation must not only happen; it must also be seen to happen at the international level. In other words, more interactions between local and regional governments and Member States are needed to showcase good practices”. The UN Forum of Mayors is a great example of a platform that allows local and regional governments to showcase best practices and innovative local solutions to Member States and to the international community in International Geneva, thus making local action visible nationally and internationally.

The GCH remains committed to engage with UNEP and other relevant partners to ensure that local and regional governments are included in environmental governance.

Read the full UNEA-7 Cities and Regions Summit report here.

📸 © Ahmed Nayim Yussuf/UNEP “20251205_UNEP_20251205_UNEP_Cities&Regions Summit_NAY-2” by Programme des Nations Unies pour l’Environnement, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0