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Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's comment on Russia's position on the UNEP Executive Director's election

20 January 2023 17:42
73-20-01-2023

We are disappointed by the UN Secretary-General's decision to nominate a non-consensual candidate for the position of Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Despite clear objections from several states, the UN Secretary-General dismissed the appeals to announce a standard procedure for accepting applications from nominees for this position.

For some time now, we have been expressing our concern to Antonio Guterres about the practice of appointing only nominees from one region to head the UNEP. Since 1992 - over 30 years - these have been exclusively representatives of Western countries (Canada, Germany, Norway and Denmark). This is a discriminatory trend as regards other UN members. It violates the principle of fair geographic representation as written in the UN Charter.

Considering that environmental problems are becoming increasingly urgent, we would like to emphasise that the head of the UN's central environmental agency should have the legitimacy and authority to promote a unifying and non-politicised agenda in the interests of all countries without exception.

We have to state with regret that the results of the voting on Danish candidate Inger Andersen in the UN General Assembly show the opposite of the above. Despite her formal election as the head of the UNEP for 2023-2027, she obviously lacks consensus support by UN member-countries (over 30 countries refused to support her nomination).

We have to say that the West is actively manipulating mechanisms of international cooperation in environmental protection. Using "ambitious" environmental initiatives as a cover, the Western countries are in effect not fulfilling their commitments to help the developing nations resolve their urgent socio-economic problems, primarily, countering poverty and hunger and ensuring universal access to energy, high-quality education and healthcare.