UNEO
Encyclopedia
Proposals for the creation of a United Nations Environmental Organization (UNEO) have come as some question the efficacy of the current United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) at dealing with the scope of global environmental issues. Created to act as an anchor institution in the system of Global Environmental Governance (GEG), it has failed to meet those demands. The UNEP has been hindered by its title as a Programme as opposed to a Specialized agency like the WTO or WHO
, in addition to a lack of voluntary funding, and a location removed from the centers of political power, in Nairobi
, Kenya. These factors have led to widespread calls for UNEP reform, and following the publication of Fourth Assessment Report
of the IPCC
in February 2007, a "Paris Call for Action" read out by French President Chirac
and supported by 46 countries, called for the UNEP to be replaced by a new and more powerful United Nations Environment Organization, to be modelled on the World Health Organization
. The 52 countries included the European Union
nations, but notably did not include the United States
and BRIC
(Brasil, Russia
, India
, and China
), the top five emitters of greenhouse gas
es.
has had enormous implications for UNEP's performance. “In the UN hierarchy, Programmes have the least independence and authority,” and this has made it difficult for UNEP to establish authority over subsequent UN bodies dealing with the environment . Additionally, “born out of a General Assembly Resolution, its mandate was limited and deprived of any implementing powers”.
and New York City
. UNEP's headquarters in Nairobi also make it difficult to attract the top-notch staff which are needed to effectively run the Programme. This is due to an uncertain security situation in Kenya and quality of life issues.
Who
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...
, in addition to a lack of voluntary funding, and a location removed from the centers of political power, in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, Kenya. These factors have led to widespread calls for UNEP reform, and following the publication of Fourth Assessment Report
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change, its potential effects, and options for...
of the IPCC
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...
in February 2007, a "Paris Call for Action" read out by French President Chirac
Chirac
Chirac may refer to:* Jacques Chirac, the President of the French Republic.* Bernadette Chirac, the wife of President Jacques Chirac** Their two daughters, Claude Chirac and Laurence...
and supported by 46 countries, called for the UNEP to be replaced by a new and more powerful United Nations Environment Organization, to be modelled on the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
. The 52 countries included the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
nations, but notably did not include the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and BRIC
BRIC
In economics, BRIC is a grouping acronym that refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development...
(Brasil, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
), the top five emitters of greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
es.
UNEP Limiting Factors
A number of factors have limited the UNEP's ability to fulfill its mandate.Designation as a Programme
The decision to establish the UNEP as a program as opposed to a Specialized Agency like the WHOWho
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...
has had enormous implications for UNEP's performance. “In the UN hierarchy, Programmes have the least independence and authority,” and this has made it difficult for UNEP to establish authority over subsequent UN bodies dealing with the environment . Additionally, “born out of a General Assembly Resolution, its mandate was limited and deprived of any implementing powers”.
Location
The UNEP has been handicapped by its location in Nairobi, Kenya. The first UN body headquartered in the Global South, the move was meant to ease tensions between the developed and developing world. However, its location in Kenya has led to an isolation from other international environmental power structures, as well as a “physical fragmentation of the governance structure” due to its removal from other UN bodies headquartered in GenevaGeneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. UNEP's headquarters in Nairobi also make it difficult to attract the top-notch staff which are needed to effectively run the Programme. This is due to an uncertain security situation in Kenya and quality of life issues.
Funding
Many of UNEP's struggles can be traced back to a lack of funding, and that lack of funding can be traced back to the UNEP's unique funding system. Unlike other international organizations, the UNEP does not have mandatory assessments, but instead is reliant on the voluntary contributions of UN member states. “UNEP’s unreliable and highly discretionary financial arrangement compromises the financial stability of the organization, its ability to plan beyond the current budget cycle, and its autonomy” as well as making the UNEP too dependent on certain member states which then hold undue influence in UNEP agenda setting. Voluntary contributions to the Environment Fund have decreased by 36% over the past ten years and have been displaced by restricted and earmarked contributions which now make up 2/3 of the UNEP's budget.UNEP's Failure as an Anchor Institution
The UNEP was created to perform the tasks of an anchor institution in the system of Global Environmental Governance (GEG). According to the Nairobi Declaration on the Role and Mandate of the United Nations Environmental program, “the role of UNEP was to be the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the Environmental dimension of sustainable development within the UN system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment”. Maria Ivanova, Director of the Global Environmental Governance Project at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, writes in a working paper entitled Assessing UNEP as Anchor Institution for the Global Environment: Lessons for the UNEO Debate that “anchor institutions are the primary, though not the only, international organizations in certain global issue areas and typically perform three core functions: 1) overseeing monitoring, assessment, and reporting on the state of the issue in their purview; 2) setting an agenda for action and advancing standards, policies, and guidelines; and 3) developing institutional capacity to address existing and emerging problems.” However, while the UNEP was chartered to perform these three primary tasks, it has failed in many ways:Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting
Monitoring, assessment, and reporting is the area in which the UNEP has had the most success, the UNEP is thought to do relatively well in the arena of global environmental assessment, and publishes the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO) which is highly respected. However, it fails to analyze environmental issues at the state level, and responsibility for monitoring, assessment, and reporting is allocated to all eight divisions of UNEP creating redundancies. Additionally, the UNEP system of reporting is disorganized and difficult to access. “The public cannot use UNEP’s publications and benefit from the organization’s work to the fullest due to the lack of a single easily accessible, searchable, and sortable database or catalog of publications”.Agenda Setting
“Another important function critical to the effectiveness of an anchor institution is agenda setting and management of intergovernmental processes to gain agreement on standards, policies, and guidelines or even just serving as the central forum for deliberation and debate.” While UNEP has had considerable success in the creation of treaties and multilateral environmental agreements (the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Montreal Protocol on the Protection of the Ozone Layer, etc.), it has struggled to coordinate the efforts of the numerous international environmental regulatory bodies after their inception. “UNEP has not succeeded in becoming the central forum for debate and deliberation in the environmental field, like the WTO for trade or the WHO for health.” This lack of a central coordinating authority has led to an erosion in the efficacy of Global Environmental Governance. “UNEP has not been able to fulfill its coordination mandate effectively in its two key areas of responsibility (1) coordination of multilateral environmental agreements and (2) coordination of the environmental activities of other international organizations”.Capacity Development
The UNEP has struggled to establish its role in the International system and this has led to it also having difficulty in Capacity Development (defined by Ivanova as Education and Training, Financing, Technical Assistance, and Institution and Network Building). The UNEP mandate calls for the UNEP to play a primarily normative role in GEG, however “the organization now views implementation as its primary strategy.” This shift has been necessitated by a desire from states for less treaties and more concrete action and the need for the UNEP to provide tangible results for potential governmental and private sources of funding, upon which the UNEP is dependent. However, in moving away from a normative role, the UNEP has moved away from its strengths: “information provision, development of common norms and principles, and institutional capacity development”.Creation of a United Nations Environmental Organization
After the 58th meeting of the UN General Assembly, a proposal was made by the member states of the European Union to transform the UNEP into the United Nations Environmental Organization. In 2007 at UNEP's Governing Council meeting, the EU repeated its call for a ““a significant strengthening of UNEP, along the lines sketched out in Cartagena as well as in the recent announcements of the Executive Director, which will help UNEP to become more effective in catalyzing action to address major environmental threats” and “that an upgrade of UNEP into a UNEO, with stable, adequate and predictable resources and with the appropriate international standing, would enable the organization to fully fulfill its mandate and to live up to the expectations of developed and developing countries”. Proponents of a UNEO argue that it would play a vital role in increasing the political importance of environmental issues in the UN, and could therefore play a vital role in solving the many environmental challenges the earth currently faces. Specifics of a UNEO would need to be worked out by the international community, but certain basic aspects of a UNEO would likely includeSpecialized Agency Status
While still working within the UN system and reporting to ECOSOC, designation as a specialized agency would allow UNEO to “enjoy budgetary autonomy” and “determine most details of their programming.” Additionally, creation of a UNEO would not require consensus among the members of the UN, and “membership in a UNEO and the UN could differ”.UNEO Structure
As with other Specialized Agencies, the institutional structure of a UNEO would consist of a plenary body, an executive organ, and a secretariat. Proponents of a UNEO suggest that a UNEO plenary body would “elect the members of the executive organ, appoint the Director General and approve the budget and work programme.” The plenary body would also likely include a wide-range of observers from other international organizations to non-governmental organizations and representatives of civil society. Specialized agencies have an executive organ which ensures that the agency achieves its operational goals and manages the budget. A UNEO executive organ is likely to “prepare the budget and work programme of the UNEO.” The Secretariat would “as the focal point for all the agency’s activities,” however there is considerable variety in the organization of the Secretariats of various Specialized Agencies.UNEO Purpose and Tasks
The exact mandate and function of a UNEO would be determined by the states involved, but they are likely to be similar to those of the UNEP. “It has been argued that a UNEO should help to systematically pool the scientific knowledge on environmental issues and help to define global environmental strategic guidelines to promote coordination and synergies.” However, unlike other specialized agencies like the WTO, it would not have the power to adjudicate environmental disputes. Proponents suggest that a UNEO could serve as an umbrella organization, helping to coordinate the “over 500 multilateral environment agreements (MEA) and numerous international organizations and fora dealing in an uncoordinated way with the environment” and make them more efficient and less redundant.UNEO Funding
A UNEO would likely rely on assessed contributions, which would alleviate UNEP problems that stem from a reliance on voluntary contributions. As a specialized agency, a UNEO would be able to determine the assessment scales of members separately from the UN general budget. Voluntary contributions would likely be used for specific projects, but assessed contributions would pay for the operating budget of a UNEO.Opposition
While the number of countries who favor the creation of a UNEO has grown, there remain fears among many states that the creation of a UNEO would “favor environmental policies to the detriment of other policies, notably economic development and, thus, poverty eradication.” Some states also feel that the UNEP should first be strengthened and given time to improve international environmental governance before a UNEO is created.Prospects
There is a consensus among policy-makers that UNEP needs to be strengthened, and “in November 2006, the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and the Environment recommended that 'UNEP should be upgraded and have real authority as the environmental policy pillar of the UN system'”. And while disagreement remains over whether the creation of a UNEO is necessary, according to a French embassy statement, support is growing. “Following the Paris Call for Action, the Group of Friends of the UNEO was set up and now has 52 States, bringing together, besides the European Union, countries from every geographical area", and many hope that a new administration in the United States will make the creation of a UNEO more likely.See also
- Global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
- International Renewable Energy AgencyInternational Renewable Energy AgencyThe International Renewable Energy Agency was founded in 2009 to promote widespread and increased adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy. IRENA facilitates access to all relevant renewable energy information, including technical data...
(IRENA) - Reform of the United NationsReform of the United NationsSince the late 1990s there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations . However, there is little clarity or consensus about what reform might mean in practice. Both those who want the UN to play a greater role in world affairs and those who want its role confined to humanitarian work or...
- United Nations Environment ProgrammeUnited Nations Environment ProgrammeThe United Nations Environment Programme coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its...
- United Nations Parliamentary AssemblyUnited Nations Parliamentary AssemblyA United Nations Parliamentary Assembly is a proposed addition to the United Nations System that would allow for participation of member nations' legislators and, eventually, direct election of United Nations parliament members by citizens worldwide...
External links
- Going Beyond the Borders of Sovereignty: the need for a United Nations Environment Organization, by Rodolpho Valente Bayma
- EU Presidency Statement - United Nations 62nd General Assembly: General Debate, 15, pursuing the upgrading of UNEP to a UNEO.
- FrancEonu.org, Permanent Mission of FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to the United Nations in New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. - France-Diplomatie
- Elysee.fr | Présidence de la République,
- France-Diplomatie
- Group of Friends of the UNEO
- Implications of a UNEO for the global architecture of the international environmental governance system.
- A UN Environment Organization, by Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf and Markus Knigge. Excerpts from "Global Environmental Governance - Perspectives on the Current Debate", Published in 2007 by the Center for UN Reform Education.
- Agirpourlenvironnement.org
- Ecologic-events.de
- Ecologic-events.de