Building a Resilient Planet: A Conversation with the United Nations Environment Programme

As the climate crisis reshapes both ecosystems and economies, the work of institutions like the United Nations Environment Programme stands at the forefront of global environmental action. In this Q&A, Gulnara Roll, Chief Sectoral Transition Section at UNEP explores how intergovernmental organizations help bring ambitious projects to life, especially in places most vulnerable to climate change. Covering topics from utility-scale renewable financing to projects rooted in conservation and protection, this conversation explores how environmental ambition can be translated into lasting impact.

Q: How does UNEP work with national and local governments to develop solutions tailored to different geographies?

A: Our work is country-driven and request-based: UNEP’s work is anchored in national priorities and country ownership. We help translate global commitments into practical, locally relevant action under our Medium-Term Strategy, which emphasizes “country-level delivery” and integrated support to national priorities. 

We combine policy and implementation support in an integrated way. UNEP supports countries through science and data, environmental governance, and integrated policy, technology, finance approaches, explicitly built into our delivery model and country implementation subprogrammes. To scale environmentally-sustainable solutions, we host international multilateral platforms and partnerships ranging from buildings (Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction and Intergovernmental Council on Buildings and Climate), cooling (Cool Coalition and Intergovernmental Committee on Cooling), appliances (U4E), sustainable production and consumption (One Planet Network), short-lived climate pollutants (Climate and Clean Air Coalition), plastics or mercury, among many others. Working with governments through these platforms help catalyse our in-country transformation programmes into more countries and compound the impacts of our work.

UNEP also works with cities and subnational actors where climate impacts and infrastructure decisions concentrate (cooling, buildings, energy, transport, land use), aligning national goals with local implementation. Within the Climate Change Division, we have a subnational action unit dedicated solely to these stakeholders, so we support countries to accelerate solutions through the engagement of subnational governments and stakeholders.

We also help countries access and deploy finance for concrete technical assistance projects in countries. UNEP is a long-standing agency working with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), having implemented over 1,000 projects across more than 160 countries over 30 years, as one of the GEF agencies that help partners access GEF finance (with technical assistance projects implemented in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, India and Senegal). 

Q: How can UNEP work across such a broad range of topics? What programs are still being developed?

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A: Because the crises are connected, our model is integrated: UNEP’s mandate is to address the “triple planetary crisis” (climate, nature loss, pollution). Our Mid Term Strategy 2026–2029 sets an integrated structure of seven interlinked subprogrammes: three thematic (climate; nature across land/ocean/freshwater; chemicals & pollution) plus foundational/enabling areas (science-policy; law & governance; finance/economic transformations; digital transformations).

We work through coalitions and system-wide levers. All the partnerships and platforms listed above, but we also have cross-cutting enabling platforms that impact a broad range of topics, for example the UNEP Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), where we partner with financial institutions globally to drive systemic change in finance, and serving as an interface between the finance sector and governments.

At the same time, we host key enabling mechanisms that are equally cross-cutting. For instance, UNEP hosts the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), the implementation arm of the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism, providing technology solutions and capacity-building at the request of developing countries, including advice on policy and regulatory frameworks. We are developing programmes across a very broad spectrum, from climate mitigation to adaptation to circular economy and environmental governance. Our emphasis is now on developing more integrated country support, deep, sectoral transformational programmes that deliver true systemic change, and accelerated work on finance and digital transformations.

Q: What are the challenges of working on policy/law/governance vs technical delivery (e.g., energy)?

A: To get policies and regulation right takes time however the robust regulatory framework makes technical solutions durable. Policy and legal reforms require political alignment, multiple stakeholder buy-in, and institutional capacity; it can take longer than technology deployment, but it is what makes outcomes repeatable and investable. We do not want pilots, demonstrations, or projects to stay as that, but to scale into a broader, market transformation that addresses the triple planetary crises. UNEP’s strategy explicitly prioritizes strengthening environmental governance and the rule of law, alongside technical and finance solutions

With technical work we face real-world constraints: energy and infrastructure solutions often run into operational realities, like data limitations, utility capacity, infrastructure bottlenecks, and financing constraints. Today only 40% of utilities in developing countries are financially sustainable, which directly affects what’s feasible on the technical side.

The hardest part is bridging the two: A technically sound solution can fail if rules do not allow it, if incentives are misaligned, or if institutions cannot implement it; conversely, good policy can stall without technical pathways and bankable project pipelines that deliver true change on the ground, and where it is actually needed. UNEP’s integrated model (science-policy, law/governance, finance, sectoral and thematic areas) is designed to bridge that gap.

Q: What are UNEP’s short-term and long-term goals, and the biggest challenges?

A: Long-term direction for us is a “healthy, prosperous and resilient people and planet,” anchored on our Medium-Term Strategy, and focusing on delivering climate stability, and living in harmony with nature across land/ocean/freshwater, land degradation neutrality, and a pollution-free planet.

In the short term, our programme of work puts an emphasis on country-level delivery, integrated solutions, strengthened governance and rule of law, improved access to credible science/data, and scaled finance and digital transformation support.

Our most significant challenges include: 

Financing and risk barriers: mobilizing capital at scale and reducing perceived risk. Hence our focus on technical assistance and capacity building that helps de-risk sustainable technologies and solutions in the countries we work in.

Institutional capacity constraints: especially in countries facing fiscal stress, rapid urban growth, and climate impacts. This is often compounded by infrastructure constraints, and human capacities, particularly in countries where a just transition requires moving from incumbent industries and institutions, retraining and reskilling, and creating new value chains for sustainable solutions.

Ensuring we address in an integrated way the interconnected crises: actions must tackle climate/nature/pollution together, which is institutionally harder as it is not easy to break the traditional sectoral barriers however this is necessary, the integrated approach.

By tackling these challenges, we work to overcome the implementation gap to translate global commitments into on the ground delivery. We have gained lots of practical experiences through our practical work in many countries. To overcome the challenges, we organize peer-to-peer learning and exchange of best practices through different events. For instance, from April 20–22, 2026, in Lausanne, Switzerland, together with EPFL, UNEP and its hosted Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction will organize the Buildings and Construction Summit, bringing together more than 500 participants, including government representatives and experts from low-income countries, many of them recipients of our technical assistance.