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New Report submitted to the Federal Government
Strengthen
global environment policies by reforming UN organizations
In the run-up to
the Rio+10 Conference, the WBGU recommends that the Federal Government
strive for organizational reforms of United Nations environment policy.
Core proposals relate to early identification and assessment of environmental
problems, stepwise establishment of an international environment organization
and new ways of financing global environment policies
Berlin,
20.12.2000.
The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU)
today submits its latest Annual Report entitled 'World
in Transition -- New Structures for Global Environment Policy' to
the Federal Research and Environment
Ministers, Edelgard Bulmahn and Jürgen Trittin. In their Report,
the scientists recommend organizational reforms of the UN system in order
to strengthen global environment policymaking.The Council proposes that
an 'Earth Alliance' comprising three 'pillars' -- Earth Assessment, Earth
Organization and Earth Funding -- be forged, and believes that the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP) should
be strengthened so that it may prospectively be transformed into an international
environment organization within that alliance.
1. Earth
Assessment: Improving evaluation of environmental problems
In order to improve assessment of global environmental problems by
and within the UN system, and to identify
ways to achieve sustainability, an 'Earth Commission', modeled on the
Brandt or Brundtland Commissions, should be established by the UN
General Assembly. The Council believes that such a Commission should
be made up of 10-15 personalities of international repute. As an independent
body, the Earth Commission should be empowered to impose an environmental
'yellow card' on the international community and to report to the UN General
Assembly.
The Earth Commission should have access
to the latest research findings so that it can issue timely warnings about
those trends which harbor the greatest risks. Independent research panels
for soils, biodiversity and risk assessment should be established along
the same lines as the 'Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change' (IPCC),
the Council recommends. Members of these panels should be scientists with
international credentials. They would be responsible for advising the
signatory parties to international conventions and for informing the global
public.
Scientific bodies for advising policymakers
are inadequately co-ordinated within the EU
as well. For this reason, environment and sustainability councils presently
existing at national level should be given the option of submitting joint
reports to Brussels in support of European environment and development
policy. Co-operation among these advisory bodies throughout the EU should
be supported or, better still, an advisory council should be established
at EU level.
2. Earth
Organization: Consider establishing an international environment organization
The Council believes that the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) should be strengthened in a series of steps and that it be upgraded
to become an international environment organization if the need arises.
Before advancing to the next, each step should be reviewed with regard
to the impact of restructuring, whereby the proposed reforms are not to
be understood as a rigid sequence. It is expected, rather, that the very
transition from one stage to the next will bring major improvements.
1st stage:
Improve co-operation
The core element of the first stage should be to strengthen the UNEP,
either by granting it the status of a UN special organization similar
to the World Health Organisation (WHO),
or by turning it into an internal UN body similar to the UN Conference
on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Such a reform would leave unchanged the independence of the various institutions,
but would promote collaboration among them. It is also essential that
environmental issues be granted higher priority within the UN family,
and that they be allocated greater financial and human resources. Until
now, the UNEP has only about 530 staff worldwide, whereas the Federal
Environment Agency (UBA) in Germany and the United
States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
have workforces of around 1,030 and 18,800, respectively.
2nd stage:
Establish an umbrella organization having independent committees
In the event that improved co-operation does not suffice to eliminate
the shortcomings that exist, the Council recommends that the UNEP be reformed,
possibly along the same lines as the World Trade Organization (WTO).
This would involve all the multilateral environmental conventions and
their respective secretariats being united under a single roof. Resolutions
pertaining to specific environmental conventions would continue to be
adopted at Conferences of the Parties, which would be committees incorporated
within this new international environment organization. Support from the
international community for establishing such an organization would be
contingent on industrialized and developing countries being granted equal
co-determination rights.
3rd stage:
Centralization and integration to form a single agency?
If, contrary to expectations, the first two stages do not provide
an adequate platform for combating the intensifying crisis of global environment
and development, a long-term consideration would be to grant even wider
powers to the international environment organization proposed by the Council.
Smaller decision-making bodies, such as an 'Environment Security Council',
could be given extensive powers to enforce compliance with international
environment standards. Many countries appear not to welcome such encroachments
on national sovereignty.
3. Earth
Funding: Pursue new funding methods and improve the efficiency of those
already in place
Without appropriate funding for global sustainability policies, there
can be no adequate response to the most pressing challenges. The Council
stresses that the level of funding required exceeds the commonly acknowledged
target of 0.7% of GDP for development co-operation, and advocates a substantial
increase in this target over the long term. That said, the growing need
for funds should not be viewed in isolation from the specific ways in
which they are subsequently disbursed, because many donor countries are
increasingly sceptical of more and more money being demanded when there
are no guarantees for efficient deployment of such funds.
The Council therefore recommends that the
bodies which monitor multilateral organizations be simultaneously strengthened,
and that innovative funding mechanisms be adopted. One particular example
would be to impose charges for using the global commons, such as international
airspace, the high seas and outer space. The latter are commonly accessible
resources that are exposed to increasing pollution, despite the protective
regimes in place.
The Council believes that one important
way to make international environment and development policy less dependent
on budgetary decisions at national level would be to have these resources
managed by the United Nations in a trustee capacity and to impose utilization
charges. The money thus raised should be earmarked for specific ends,
however, and the level of charges should be reduced again if damage to
those common resources declines.
Private-sector funding, e.g. from foundations
or in the form of donations, should also be facilitated. In addition,
the Council members recommend the replenishment of national environment
funds, linked, for example, to debt relief initiatives worldwide. Priority
should be attached less to the amount of revenue obtained and more to
efficient use of funds.
Exploit
the opportunity presented by the Rio+10 Conference
In the view of the Council, this vision of structural reform should
be used as a guideline for the urgently needed reforms of global environmental
policymaking. The follow-up conference to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro
(Rio+10 Conference) in 2002 should be used to initiate elements of this
structural reform. As far back as 1997, the German government advocated
the establishment of an international environment organisation; a year
later, the proposal was voiced once again by the French President, Jacques
Chiraq. In June 2000, the French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, announced
that the issue of an international environment organization would be raised
again during France's EU presidency. The international conference of environment
ministers in Malmö has also emphasized the need to reform the organization
and thrust of global environment policies. In the view of the Council,
this favorable political climate should be utilized to launch an initiative,
possibly an EU initiative, in which Germany and France could act as prime
movers.
Please direct your queries to:
WBGU Secretariat
Reichpietschufer 60-62, 8th Floor
D-10785 Berlin
Germany
Tel. +49 30 263948 12
Fax +49 30 263948 50
Email: wbgu@wbgu.de
All press releases and reports can be downloaded
at http://www.wbgu.de.
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