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Hilary Benn's diary February 2009

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn wrote this diary during his trip to Kenya and Antarctica. He attended the Governing Council of the United Nations Environmental Programme in Nairobi and visited a number of schemes and projects; he then went to Antarctica to look at climate change research there.

Thursday 19 February 2009

tree plantingLike all the UN's institutions, the very existence of UNEP is an expression of our better nature; nations from all four corners of the globe coming together to try and deal with  the problems we face. One practical success from this week's governing council was a new agreement on tackling mercury and the damage it causes. It took days of negotiations  - in which Defra officials played a significant part - and it shows exactly how we can make the UN work.
 
The day started with a meeting with Andreas Carlgren, the Swedish Environment minister, to discuss plans for their EU Presidency in the second half of next year. After that I met, one after the other, the French minister Chantal Jouanno, John Michuki (Kenya's Environment minister who described how he is trying to clean up Nairobi's rivers) and then Wangari Matthai. A Nobel Prize winner, she is an inspirational leader in the fight against deforestation and she has been helping to set up the Congo Forest Basin Fund, which the UK and Norway are financing. She told me that the first round of bids have come in and look promising. After Tuesday's cancelled tree planting, we did not want to miss this opportunity, so after some swift work by the excellent High Commmission team, we walked to the UN's nature area and planted a splendid croton tree. "It will grow very fast" she assured me.
 
In the afternoon, I co-chaired a roundtable on international environmental governance. The subject of many reports and debates in recent years, it's all about trying to make sure that what's grown up - hundreds of environmental agreements and conventions and a host of bodies inside the UN and outside doing work on the environment - works effectively. A new ministerial group will take on the baton, but institutional change in the UN can be a slow process.
 
And then after a meeting with Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, to look at where UNEP goes in future, it was off to the High Commission where I announced 43 new Darwin projects under round 16 of the award, in the year in which we celebrate the two hundreth anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday. When the guests and media had departed it was time for a final session with the team. It was a chance both to say thank you to everyone for a great deal of hard work, and to discuss what's been happening in Kenya and Somalia. What I learned from my years at DFID was that if you can get your governance right - in other words make politics work for people and their hopes and aspirations - then a country has a much better chance of making progress.
 
And then it was late night packing for Antarctica. I tend to overpack, so I hope my rucksack and my shoulders will bear with me.
 
Hilary Benn

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Page last modified: 21 February 2009
Page published: 21 February 2009