Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the accord, some were concerned that these dynamics could threaten the
legitimacy of UN negotiations for the near future and could require a
reconsideration of the entire UN conference model of evolving consensus
through face-to-face negotiations (Hultman 2009).
The UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen suggests a clash between the
standard operating procedures of hard-law venues and rising global
scrutiny of international affairs. For the moment, however, business as
usual restricts access to government delegations and their accredited
representatives. The UN and its constituent hard-law agencies will have
to go further than saying they are participatory to satisfy the increasing
demands of nonstate actor groups. Of course, broadening participation
in a true sense is extremely diffi cult, given an international system based
on the sovereignty of nation-states, rather than on the self-determination
of individual citizens. With that in mind, I now turn to a soft-law institu-
tion that is much more amenable to nonstate actor participation.
The UNCSD
Formulated during the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development (the UNCED “Earth Summit”), the UNCSD was
established to facilitate and monitor the implementation of UNCED
conference agreements, most notably Agenda 21, which is the broad-
sweeping sustainable development agenda for the twenty-fi rst century
drafted during the Earth Summit. The commission's focus has subse-
quently expanded to include oversight of the Barbados Program of
Action for Small Island Developing States
4
and the Johannesburg Plan
of Implementation.
5
The commission is a high-level forum, meaning it
involves minister-level government offi cials as well as senior-level United
Nations staff members (and often heads of state), and meets in New York
City annually in a two-year cycle of review and policy. The range of
government ministers engaged at the CSD varies widely and includes
such areas as energy, natural resources, agriculture, oceans/fi sheries,
development, forestry, and occasionally foreign affairs. The United
Nations Division for Sustainable Development serves as the secretariat
for the UNCSD.
6
The Division for Sustainable Development is charged with three
primary goals: “Integration of the social, economic and environmental
dimensions of sustainable development in policy-making at international,
regional and national levels; Wide-spread adoption of an integrated,
cross-sectoral and broadly participatory approach to sustainable devel-
