UNEP director: current pandemic a human failing

The world knew a coronavirus pandemic might happen, but was unprepared, the United Nations' environmental organ said on Monday, stressing that more must be done to avoid another pandemic.

Releasing a new report on zoonotic diseases, Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), stated the coronavirus pandemic had been "not a matter of if but when."

"We must address zoonotic diseases" to prevent another global outbreak, she continued.

Andersen explained that there had been six major new coronavirus outbreaks in the past century, and that the majority of new emerging infectious diseases were derived from the animal world.

"Human health, animal health, and planetary health, (...) these three cannot be separated."

This was echoed by Jimmy Smith, Director General of the of the International Livestock Research Institute, who underlined that diseases like COVID-19 were "not unpredictable events like earthquakes."

He added that they were a result of intensifying interactions between humans, animals and the natural world, exacerbated by population growth, income growth and urbanization.

The U.N. report released Monday, titled "Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic Diseases and How to Break the Chain of Transmission," contains recommendations for governments on how to prevent zoonotic outbreaks.