To assist countries in addressing the many challenges brought about by the implementation and enforcement of MEAs, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has produced a new comprehensive Manual on Compliance with and Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements. This Manual was recently launched in Geneva at the commemoration of the World Environment Day in June 2006.

The Manual is intended to be used by a wide audience, including treaty negotiators, law-makers, lawyers, police and customs officers. Additionally, it is a resource that will be useful in teaching and researching. Considering the breadth of the topics addressed and the multitude of audiences targeted, the Manual is meant to be used as a reference tool. It is structured as an annotated commentary to UNEP’s Guidelines on Compliance with and Enforcement of MEAs and uses clear, simple language. It provides explanatory text, case studies, checklists, references to additional resources, and annexes with supplementary information.

Moreover, the Manual reflects the premise of the Guidelines that each MEA is unique and that the implementation situation of each Party is different. A PDF version of the Manual is currently available on UNEP’s homepage (www.unep.org/dec) and an upcoming interactive, online version will enhance the availability, ease-of-use, and functionality of the Manual by allowing users to access various parts of the Manual in a nonlinear fashion, search through its various components using any term that matches their interests, and navigate the document in a manner more closely suited to their actual needs and circumstances.

Similarly to the upcoming online version, the CD-ROM of UNEP‘s Manual on Compliance with and Enforcement of MEAs will provide users with dynamic methods of interacting with the Manual and for accessing the content most relevant to their unique interests.

See Chapter 3 of Making Law Work: Environmental Compliance & Sustainable Development on Multilateral Environmental Agreements in Action, at http://www.inece.org/makinglawwork.html.

Article Argues that Compliance is Essential to Rule of Law, Good Governance, and Sustainable Development

Links among compliance, rule of law, and good governance are essential and indivisible, although not sufficient alone to achieve sustainable development, according to authors Durwood Zaelke and Thomas Higdon in their new article “ The Role of Compliance in the Rule of Law, Good Governance, and Sustainable Development” (Journal of European Environmental Law and Planning, p. 376, 5/2006).

Compliance with environmental and sustainable development requirements can be improved by understanding and applying the two main theoretical approaches: logic of consequences, and logic of appropriateness. Compliance can be improved more by combining the two approaches. Further work to disaggregate both the State and the firm, and to understand the role of biases, heuristics, and framing in actor’s compliance calculations, remains to be done and promises important insights.

See Chapter 1 of Making Law Work: Environmental Compliance & Sustainable Development on Compliance, Rule of Law, and Good Governance, at http://www.inece.org/makinglawwork.html.

World Bank “Governance Matters” Governance Indicators

In September 2006, the World Bank Institute released a new report in the 'Governance Matters' series containing the updated and expanded set of worldwide Governance Indicators for 213 countries and territories. A video of report author Daniel Kaufman discussing the publication is available through WBI.(http://inece.org/forumsindicators.html)

New Book Analyses EU Carbon Trading

Climate Change Law - Emissions Trading in the EU and UK (Cameron May 2006) was written by the team of UK government lawyers who negotiated the relevant EU legislation, drafted the UK domestic legislation and advised on the UK implementation of the EU emissions trading scheme. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the regulatory framework for carbon trading in Europe. It brings together in one volume the first full legal analysis of EU and UK law relating to the EU emissions trading scheme and all the legislative materials necessary to understand this innovative and complex area of environmental law. It is intended as a companion for any professional advising on carbon trading in the UK or EU and a user-friendly reference tool for lawyers, carbon traders and those working in regulated industries and financial institutions with in carbon finance.

Click here for ordering information.

Global Environmental Governance Analyzed in New Report

Adil Najam, Mihaela Papa, Nadaa Taiyab’s new report, Global Environmental Governance: A Reform Agenda (IISD, 2006) addresses the sum of organizations, policy instruments, financing mechanisms, rules, procedures and norms that regulate the processes of global environmental protection. Since environmental issues entered the international agenda in the early 1970s, global environmental politics and policies have been developing rapidly. The environmental governance system we have today reflects both the successes and failures of this development. It has become increasingly clear that the GEG system, as we know it, has outgrown its original design and intent. The book identifies a number of practical steps that can foster more efficient and effective global environmental governance, making better use of the resources available and designed in a way that will be more helpful to the implementation of international environmental agreements for developing as well as developed countries. The publication was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. The book cites INECE’s work to develop indicators of effective environmental compliance and enforcement.

UN Report Highlights Importance of Environmental Protection to Investors

Show Me The Money: Linking Environmental, Social and Governance Issues to Company Value confirms the growing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns to the global investment industry. The report was launched by UNEP's Finance Initiative, in cooperation with 14 of the world's largest investment companies.

UN Report Offers “Snap-shot” of MEAs

The United Nations released a report providing information on the different MEA missions, structures, financing and governance. Basic Information on Secretariats of Multilateral Environmental Agreements contains fact sheets on twenty two major agreements and was prepared using information provided by individual MEA Secretariats in response to a series of questions posed by the Secretariat of the UN High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and the Environment.

Report Links Declining Air Pollution and Lower Death Rates

New research indicates that when air pollution in a city declines, the city benefits with a directly proportional drop in death rates. Improved compliance and enforcement with air quality regulations can therefore translate into lives saved. For each decrease of 1 microgram of soot per cubic meter of air, death rates from cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness and lung cancer decrease by 3 percent — extending the lives of 75,000 people a year in the United States. The association held even after controlling for smoking and body mass index. The work, described in a paper in the March 15 issue of The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, was carried out in six metropolitan areas: Watertown, Mass.; Kingston and Harriman, Tenn.; St. Louis; Steubenville, Ohio; Portage, Wyocena and Pardeeville, Wis.; and Topeka, Kan. The participants, ages 25 to 74 at enrollment, were followed from 1974 through 1998.

For information, see Nicholas Bakalar, Ceaner Air Brings Drop in Death Rate, New York Times, March 21, 2006.

Journal Article Looks at Private-Public Regulation in Forestry Sector

A new article by Errol Meidingter addresses “The Administrative Law of Global Private-Public Regulation: The Case of Forestry” (European Journal of International Law, Vol. 17, 2006). An important ensemble of transnational, transgovernmental regulatory institutions has emerged in the forestry sector over the past decade. These ‘forest certification’ programs set global standards for proper forest management and apply them through institutionalized licensing and inspection programs. Similar programs are appearing in other sectors. Developed largely by environmental NGOs and industry associations rather than governments, forest certification programs are nominally voluntary, but increasingly mandatory in practice. They are also gradually linking with government regulatory and management programs in various ways, while remaining in tension both with each other and with government programs. The overall regulatory system is thus highly dynamic, as the programs compete with each other for business and also with government regulatory programs for public acceptance.

This paper describes and assesses the administrative law – i.e., the requirements for rule making and rule application – of the emerging global forest regulatory system. It finds that while the certification programs are becoming increasingly effective, transparent and participatory, often comparing favorably with government programs, some of them still need considerable improvement and all of them face serious challenges. It concludes with a discussion of the problem of accountability, outlining the possibility that the programs exemplify an emerging new kind of ‘learning accountability.

Report Links Finnish Companies to Illegal Logging  

Greenpeace alleged recently that the Finnish companies Botnia and Stora Enso are directly involved in importation of wood from Russian forests, obtained in an illegal manner. A Greenpeace report states that wood originating from illegal logging operations in Russia is freely imported to Finland by companies such as Stora Enso and UPM Kymmene. UPM-Kymmene owns 47% of the Finnish company Botnia which is currently constructing a pulp mill on the River Uruguay. Similarly, Stora Enso of Swiss origin, is proposing to construct a mega-pulpmill facility in the region of Durazno, on the River Negro basin in Uruguay’s interior.

In their report ‘Partners in crime: A Greenpeace investigation about the illegal timber trade between Finland and Russia’, Greenpeace documents various illegal operations in the Russian Republic of Karelia. During investigations carried out between June and August 2006, logging which violating Russian forestry and environment laws was witnessed, with the wood transported across the border in order to be processed by companies such as UPM and Stora Enso. Products emanating from these factories were sold in markets world wide, notably Europe and Japan.

Purchasers of products of the factories include large manufacturers of disposable liquid containers such as Tetra Pak and Elopak. Greenpeace also accused the state of Finland of keeping silent on the issue of destructive deforestation. “This is an eloquent example of the devastation produced by the paper industry in many parts of the world”, explained Juan Carlos Villalonga, political director of Greenpeace Argentina.

In their recent report ‘The escalation of pulp industry in the region’ Greenpeace in the Southern Cone revealed how the destruction of forestry resources in the northern hemisphere and the environmental restrictions that are imposed is pushing the expansion of the pulp industry in South America. “The factories of Botnia, ENCE and Stora Enso are examples of this pressure, and it is necessary that our countries establish strict environmental limits and conditions in order to prevent an expansion that could have very grave consequences for our countries”, said Villalonga.

For more information, contact Grupo Guayubira.