Agreeing that the status quo in international environmental governance is untenable, world environment ministers launched a political process that will seriously consider all possible options for reforming the international environmental architecture. This is the formal continuation of the so-called Belgrade process, which was launched in February 2009 at the 25th session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme. Ministers and high-level representatives met in Belgrade in June and in Rome in October 2009 and are now expected to outline in greater detail both incremental and broader reform options to be presented at the 26th session of the UNEP Governing Council in 2011.
The Decision on International Environmental Governance adopted at the 11th UNEP Special Session Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Bali, Indonesia, however, is historic in that it opens the process to civil society. To date, the intergovernmental consultations on international environmental governance have been restricted to governments. Reform options, therefore, could only come from governmental thinking and no formal input from other actors has been officially possible. Paragraph 9 of the latest decision “invites the consultative group to seek relevant inputs from civil society groups from each region.”
The inclusion of this provision came as a result of the activism of civil society during the Global Ministerial Environment Forum. Representatives of the nine major groups (business and industry; children and youth; farmers; indigenous peoples; local authorities; NGOs; scientific and technological communities; women; workers and trade unions) reached unanimous agreement t0 propose the creation of an advisory body comprised of civil society representatives to provide input into the deliberations on international environmental governance at the Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum. Several governments supported the idea and put it forth for discussion. While governments did not agree on the establishment of a formal mechanism, the decision offers the opportunity for civil society to contribute in a more structured way. Watch GEG Project Director, Maria Ivanova, discuss the civil society process and the governmental decision, here. Read the decision here.
