Russia's war on Ukraine should not stop the world from tackling other pressing global crises, UN Environment Programme chief Inger Andersen told the Stockholm+50 environmental conference on Thursday.
"The world has to learn to deal with multiple crises and not let go of one in favour of another," she told reporters at the two-day event in Stockholm.
The climate crisis and difficult issues surrounding biodiversity and pollution are "existential" threats that must be urgently faced, she said.
The conference is focusing on ways to accelerate the pace in fighting global warming, species extinction and pollution, at an event that is being conducted 50 years after the first UN conference on the environment.
Attendees included UN General Secretary António Guterres, a number of government leaders, dozens of ministers, and numerous climate and environmental activists.
One leading activist, Vanessa Nakate, was dismissive of Berlin's offers to work with Senegal on gas production. "What Africa needs is investment in renewable energy, not more fossil fuel infrastructure," she told dpa on the sidelines of the event.
African nations don't need fossil fuels that are already causing massive destruction through climate disasters," she said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz offered to cooperate with Senegal on developing a gas field off the coast of West Africa, as well as in renewables.
"What we really need is for countries like Germany to put money in investments of clean energy," Nakate said, noting that investing in fossil fuel extraction in Africa has led to human rights violations and violence in the past, exacerbating poverty in some places.
She called for tougher action than in the past, saying, "me personally, I want something that is beyond statements and promises."
Fancy speeches will not save the planet and suffering communities, she said. "What we want is real drastic action."
Earlier, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf welcomed delegations from around the world in his opening speech, which reflected on the "historic" first environmental conference in Stockholm in 1972.
"We have come a long way since then. But let me be clear: We do not have 50 more years to turn the development around," Carl Gustaf warned of the climate crisis.
"If we want to limit global warming, the next few years are critical," he continued, setting the tone for what will be the most important topic of the conference: how to speed up the fight against global warming, species extinction, and pollution.
Under the banner "A healthy planet for the prosperity of all - our responsibility, our opportunity," the conference aims to implement climate treaties such as the UN sustainable development goals and the Paris Agreement.
No new concrete agreements and decisions are expected.
"This is not a meeting that will set new goals because the world has already set itself very ambitious targets," said Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
Instead, the conference will look at ways to reach existing goals more quickly and efficiently, Andersson said.
Stockholm was the site of the first UN conference to deal with questions about the environment, in 1972.
It was also the occasion of the founding of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Subsequently, governments around the world established environmental ministries, and many global treaties on environmental protection have been signed off since.
