Reappointing Denmark’s Inger Andersen to lead the organization’s environmental program could “politicize” global conservation efforts, Moscow claims
The UN's conservation efforts and climate change response may fall victim to pro-Western bias if current CEO Inger Andersen is reappointed to lead its environmental agency, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
The statement came in response to allegations that Russia had sought to stifle Andersen’s candidacy in an attempt to undermine Western support for Kiev during its military conflict with Moscow.
The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) is tasked with raising awareness and advocating for global solutions to combat climate change. Andersen, a Danish economist and conservation expert, currently serves as its executive director, but her term expires this year.
The Financial Times cited two UN sources last week as saying that Moscow was working to block Andersen’s reappointment. The report also cited unnamed diplomats as describing the move as “part of a broader effort by the country to exert influence on the world stage and undermine the objectives of Western nations that have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Without specifying the publication, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman called the report “politically charged.”
Zakharova stated that prolonging Andersen’s tenure would “strengthen the discriminatory practice of almost exclusively appointing the representatives of Western countries to this high position.”
Such practice unavoidably leads to the dominance of Western staffers at UNEP and to the ignoring of rich national conservation experiences and priorities of developing countries.
Zakharova argued that Andersen’s reappointment could lead to the “politicization” of international environmental efforts. “We believe that the time has come to strengthen the geographical balance at UNEP and let a member from the non-Western world lead the organization,” she said.
UNEP’s leader is elected by the UN General Assembly after being nominated by the organization’s secretary general.
https://www.rt.com/russia/569865-russia-un-western-dominance/
Any moment now I am expecting John Cleese (a veteran of Monty Python) to jump out of the bushes and announce the creation of the Ministry of Silly Wars, with Donald Trump as the deranged leader. For you youngsters out there, Monty Python’s skit, The Ministry of Silly Walks, helped make the members of MP legends. I had to reference Monty Python because the line of bullshit the Trump administration is feeding the American people and the world about the amazing, obliterating US attack on Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, is more ridiculous that all of the silly walks pictured in the following video:
My hopes that Donald Trump would finally act like a responsible adult are dashed. He’s a dangerous buffoon. While the team around him are working frantically to maintain the fiction that Trump has a vision and is calling the shots on the foreign policy front, he is careening around the globe like an out-of-control cue ball on a billiards table. It started a week ago… first, he claimed...
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Xi made the remarks in his speech at the second China-Central Asia Summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
Xi said that the Chinese side has decided to establish three cooperation centers and a trade facilitation platform within the China-Central Asia cooperation mechanism.
When addressing the summit, Xi said these institutions include the China-Central Asia poverty reduction cooperation center, the China-Central Asia education exchange cooperation center, the China-Central Asia desertification control cooperation center, as well as the China-Central Asia trade facilitation cooperation....more below
