April 2007 Reforming UN Environmental Governance CHRISTIAN MÖLLER Introduction Climate change is the ultimate cross-cutting environmental issue and it has continuously moved to the top of the agenda of almost every international political gathering. The question of how to address climate change has also pushed the debate on how to reform the current international environmental regime. Today, international environmental governance is characterized by over 500 1 multilateral environmental agreements(MEAs) 2 and nearly 20 competent organizations and international financial institutions in the field of environment. This situation is increasingly perceived as unsatisfying because it has led to fragmentation and incoherence of environmental policies. Against this background, this fact sheet looks at the institutional status-quo as well as well as the challenges that calls for reforms are facing. The Paris Declaration At the Paris Conference for Global Ecological Governance in February 2007, 46 states declared their determination to strengthen the present environmental regime. The group includes practically all European states, but also a small number of developing countries among them Chile, Ecuador and Cambodia. Together they signed the Paris declaration 3 , calling for the transformation of the UN Environmental Programme(UNEP) into a“fully­fledged” international organization, following the model of the WHO. Debate on Environmental Governance at the UN The debate on environmental governance is reflected at the UN-level in an informal consultation process at the General Assembly 4 launched in April 2006. Following up on the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document 5 , member states agreed“to explore the possibility of a more coherent institutional framework” for the UN environmental activities. In addition, the High-level Panel on System-wide Coherence, established by Kofi Annan, has made a number of recommendations on environmental governance in its report“Delivering as One” 6 . Among other things the report recommends strengthening the“environment policy pillar” by upgrading UNEP with a renewed mandate and improved funding. The report findings have not yet been discussed at the General Assembly, but they are intended to be integrated in the ongoing GA consultation process on the issue. A Stronger Role for UNEP? The debate on strengthening UNEP’s role is not new and has come up several times since its creation in 1972. As a UN program, in terms of hierarchy, UNEP is responsible and reports to the General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council. Despite this relatively weak legal status, in the past UNEP has always acted as the leading global environmental agency and has also been perceived in this way. But its ambitious goals have been repeatedly undermined by weak and unpredictable funding and even more by the opposition it faced from developing countries. They fear that a strong environmental organization could restrict their legitimate economic development goals and therefore prefer to discuss 1 Approximately 300 of them are regional in their character, CIEL 2002 2 Information on selected MEAs: http://www.un.org/ga/president/60/summitfollowup/060612d .pdf 3 Complete declaration: http://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/conference/ 4 Official GA information: http://www.un.org/ga/president/61/follow­up/environmentalgovernance.shtml 5 Paragraph 169 of the September 2005 World Outcome Document, http://www.un.org/summit2005/documents.html 6 HLP-SWC Report: Delivering as One, released 11/09/07, http://www.un.org/events/panel/