The European Union supports a legally binding Global Pact on the Environment that would bring together in one document all the United Nations environmental instruments and protocols. European Council President Donald Tusk made this plain, speaking at a round table discussion devoted to the French initiative during the 72nd UN General Assembly, in New York on Tuesday evening 19 September.
“Let me also express my support to President Macron for the ambition to establish an inclusive process to define how we turn this initiative into action. The EU and its member states will be ready to help shape that process with an open mind”, Tusk said.
He went on: “International environmental law has developed a lot over the last 40 years. There are many international organisations and instruments intended to protect everything from species and habitats to the oceans and the atmosphere. But we lack an overarching, legally binding framework that brings them all together and gives them greater coherence and force”. Making the point that the initiative is very timely, Tusk seized the opportunity to call for swift and comprehensive implementation of the Paris climate agreement (see other article).
“All these texts, all these joint efforts are worthy of adoption in a single universal framework. A framework that will elevate to the highest the ambitions of peoples and of governments for the protection of the planet. A framework that will establish rights and also duties for humankind towards nature. … And this collective framework is the Global Pact for the Environment”, the French president had told the General Assembly.
At the round table discussion, Lauren Fabius, former president of COP 21, set out the “principles and proposals for Articles”, drafted in collaboration with international experts (“Le Club des juristes”) to be used as a basis for discussion on a global pact to be adopted by the UN General Assembly “in conjunction with the UNDP”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)