AMSTERDAM, January 18th 2008 – The special issue (Volume 37, Number 6) of the journal Environmental Policy and Law (EPL) is the first report on all documents related to environment and sustainable development discussed in the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly (UN/GA). During the session at UN Headquarters in New York, the importance of multilateral solutions to many of the world’s most pressing problems was noted by GA President, Srgjan Kerim. The priorities of the session included: Climate change, financing for development, achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), counter-terrorism and the reform agenda to renew the management, effectiveness and coherence of the UN.
The report provides an overview of discussions on selected legal and environmental issues addressed by the session up to 16 November 2007, as well as a brief report on the high-level meeting on climate change convened on the initiative and under the chairmanship of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 24 September 2007. The high-level meeting on climate change, entitled ‘The Future in our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change’, aimed at building political momentum before the thirteenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the third Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, held in December 2007, in Bali, Indonesia.
Wolfgang E. Burhenne (Editor-in-Chief of EPL): “Although this issue goes to print before the conclusion of the Bali Conference on climate change, we obviously share the view and confidence of the Secretary General, who said that ‘Today, the time for doubt has passed… the world’s scientists have spoken clearly in one voice (on climate change). In Bali, I expect the world’s policymakers to do the same.’ We hope that the Bali results will lead to forward movement, rather than further institutional discussions, as recently proposed by the Czech president.”
Other articles address underlying sources of some of these issues in detail – the legal and policy evolution of environmental action at the global, regional and national levels. The issue reports some of the most current controversies and developments, including the impact of landmines on the environment and how it is addressed, how new action on UNCLOS has been engendered by national policy development regarding the Arctic, and various recent decisions in the WTO, the courts and administrative agencies.
© 2008 IOS Press. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
About the Special Issue
UN/GA in session is a special issue of the IOS Press journal Environmental Policy and Law (Volume 37, Number 6). EPL (ISSN: 0378-777x) will be published in 1 volume of 6 issues in 2008.
Table of Contents
United Nations Activities
UN/GA
Report on the Proceedings of the sixty-second session: Focus on selected items / Else Tsioumani
CBD
Progress in preparations – Re-orientation on key legal and policy issues / Soledad Aguilar, Elsa Tsioumani and Tomme Young
Montreal Protocol / MOP-19
Adjustments: A double hit for ozone and climate / Joanna Depledge
UNFCCC
Global environmental governance – The search for principles not based on the North-South Divide / Mukul Sanwal
UNECE
“Environment for Europe” – Sixth Ministerial Conference: Building bridges to the future / Ariana Broggiato
Other International Developments
Environmental tribunals as a mechanism for settling disputes / Donald Kaniaru
WTO
Retreaded tyres – Limiting the environmental safety exception
Arctic / UNCLOS
The melting and partitioning of a global commons / Beverly G. Sobel, Isaac Smith, Armin Rosencranz
Landmines, landscape degradation and ‘proportionalety’ / Kevin Kiernan
Regional Affairs
CARICOM
Towards effective environmental cooperation and governance (Part 2) / Ronald Singh
ICEF
The Mediterranean and Black Sea ecosystem under discussion / Amedeo Postiglione
Antarctica
The treaty system – Continuing challenges / David Manowitz
Tehran Convention
Implementing the Caspian Convention – Ancillary protocols / Elena Kvitsinskaia
Eritrean-Ethiopian War
Impacts of landmines on the environment and biodiversity / Edem A. Eniang, Amleset Haile and Teshale Yihdego
Europe
Local governments and sustainable development / Monica Zimmermann
National Affairs
Canada
Devil’s dilemma – More loaves and fewer fishes / Jamie Benidickson
Selected documents
Tropical rainforest countries – Joint statement of the leaders of tropical rainforest countries
About the journal
Environmental Policy and Law (under the auspices of ICEL, Editor-in-Chief: Wolfgang E. Burhenne) is the first journal in its field, since its launch in the mid seventies, that has taken on the role of world leader in information exchange on legal, administrative and policy matters relevant to the human and natural environment. On the cover of the special issue is a photo of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates, former US Vice President Al Gore and Dr. R.K. Pachauri. Wolfgang E. Burhenne: “We have worked closely with Mr. Gore for many years, especially when then-Senator Gore was forming a network/organization linking national parliamentarians from the US, Europe and elsewhere on environmental issues, and collaborated on the Interparliamentary Conference on the Global Environment in Washington. Our congratulations to him are shared with Dr. Pachauri, for whom we feel a special kinship, as he is the Editor-in-Chief of another IOS Press journal – Resources, Energy, and Development.”
EPL takes part in the HINARI (Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative) program and will join OARE (Online Access to Research in the Environment) as well. In this way, developing countries will be given the chance to gain access to this journal for free.
Journal
Environmental Policy and Law