Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
global environmental protection treaties could be integrated under its govern-
ance. This would certainly enhance the scope for synergies between the treaties
that currently operate on overlapping tasks. If a WEO had an automatic dispute
settlement system comparable to the WTO, states could take each other to
WEO dispute settlement panels, gradually creating the foundation for a unifi ed
regulation of international environmental law.
Most international environmental law professionals are broadly in favour of
establishing a WEO in theory, although different scholars have different ideas
as to how it would be constituted and operate. In October 2011, environmen-
tal lawyers signed an appeal in Limoges, France, which was sent to the UN
WEO. The idea was debated at the Rio +20 preparatory meetings, alongside
a UN 'Environment Organization' (UNEO), which would have also been an
autonomous intergovernmental organization. Proposals to strengthen the
UNEP to make it a specialized agency rather than a subsidiary body of the UN
General Assembly also received a lot of attention.
These proposals are all too ambitious to be realized at the moment,
however. There is simply not suffi cient will to establish any extensive new
international organization, especially in the sphere of environmental protec-
tion, which is not a top priority for the international community. Few of the
present international environmental treaty secretariats would probably be
ready for such a change. They already have their own objectives for the areas
they have been assigned to by the creators of their respective regimes, the
states. Consideration should also be given to how the establishment of such an
organization would relate to the WTO, to existing human rights monitoring
bodies, and to other institutions important for the promotion of sustainable
development. In Rio +20, the most viable solution proposed was to strengthen
and upgrade the UNEP by expanding its governing body from the current
58 members to universal membership.
There are others who propose that a WEO might be established by chang-
ing the status of the UN Environment Programme into a separate specialized
UN agency. It might then be assigned more tasks in the coordination of
international environmental treaties. As it is, cooperation between the treaties
that monitor waste and hazardous chemicals is already taking place under the
auspices of the UNEP. The UNEP will certainly one day require a new
enhanced status for this coordination work, as the fi eld of international
environmental protection is so badly fragmented. At the very least, an increase
in the cooperation between the secretariats and meetings of the parties of
environmental treaties would be very promising.
The pressure for change to the international environmental administration
also comes from the WTO dispute settlement procedure. The capacity of the
WTO dispute settlement procedure to make decisions affecting international
environmental protection has become increasingly problematic. WTO
members can automatically take each other to the dispute settlement procedure
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