Why Finland wants UNEA to go beyond text to systems

President William Ruto addresses the UNEA 6 at UNEP Headquaters in Gigiri, Nairobi County. [PCS]

Nairobi’s role in global environmental diplomacy is not ceremonial but operational. At UNEA-7, the city again became a testing ground for whether multilateral promises can survive geopolitical friction and translate into funded action that people can feel, in cleaner transport, better jobs, stronger climate resilience, and systems that make governments accountable.

In an exclusive interview with Mactilda Mbenywe on the sidelines of the negotiations, Finland’s Minister of Climate and the Environment, Sari Multala, framed Finland’s partnership with Kenya as deliberately practical: programmes that green vocational training and youth livelihoods, financing that nudges capital into youth-led agribusinesses, grant-backed energy and e-mobility projects, and a major weather and early-warning modernisation package anchored by Finnish technology and long-term institutional cooperation. She also described UNEA’s political constraints, consensus decision-making, competing priorities, and pressure on UNEP’s mandate, while arguing that progress still depends on what member states choose to implement once the meetings end.