A Global Pact for the Environment: Conceptual foundations

• Date: 01 April 2019
• Published date: 01 April 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12277

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

A Global Pact for the Environment: Conceptual foundations

Yann Aguila

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Jorge E. Viñuales

Correspondence

Email: jev32@cam.ac.uk This article introduces the conceptual foundations of the initiative towards the

adoption of a Global Pact for the Environment. It first situates the search for a

global framework instrument on environmental protection in a long‐term perspective

and then discusses the main reasons why it is needed. Against this background, the

article presents the current expression of this much broader trend, in the form of

the initiative for a Global Pact for the Environment and the momentum it has gener-

ated in policy circles, first and foremost at the level of the United Nations General

Assembly.

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INTRODUCTION

The adoption, on 10 May 2018, of United Nations (UN) General

Assembly Resolution A/72/L.51, entitled ‘Towards a Global Pact for

the Environment’(Enabling Resolution),

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has justifiably attracted great

public attention, including expressions of support and, inevitably, also

criticism. The resolution called for the establishment of an Ad Hoc

Open‐ended Working Group, which met in early September 2018 in

New York and is scheduled to meet three more times in Nairobi in the

first half of 2019

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to discuss the substantive aspects of the initiative

for a Global Pact for the Environment (GPE). Much could be said

about this initiative, in which the authors of this article are closely

involved, and which has received ample coverage in the media

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as

well as in academic and policy circles.

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In the specific context of this

article,

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however, we will limit ourselves to two basic observations,

which will provide the necessary background for the analysis of the

intellectual origins and conceptual foundations underlying the GPE.

The first observation is that it would be a mistake to see the

Enabling Resolution or even the initiative for a GPE as a mere

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2019 The Authors. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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UNGA ‘Towards a Global Pact for the Environment’UN Doc A/RES/72/277 (10 May 2018)

(‘Enabling Resolution’).

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‘Report of the Ad Hoc Open‐ended Working Group Established Pursuant to General

Assembly Resolution 72/277 of 10 May 2018 Entitled “Towards a Global Pact for the Envir-

onment”’ UN Doc A/AC.289/L.1 (20 August 2018).

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See, e.g., ‘Bid for Environmental Rights Pact to Kick Off in Paris Tomorrow’(The Times of

India, 23 June 2017); ‘Un Pacte Mondial pour Protéger l'Environnement’(Le Monde, 25

June 2017); ‘Un Projet de Pacte Mondial pour l'Environnement’(Le Figaro, 24 June 2017);

‘Macron Promet de Défendre un “Pacte Mondial pour l'Environnement”’ (Reuters, 24 June

2017); ‘Wang Yi Attends Global Pact for the Environment Summit’(Ministry of Foreign

Affairs of the People's Republic of China, 20 September 2017); H Xiao, ‘China Lauds UN

Environment Pact’(China Daily, 20 September 2017); ‘Macron rilancia all'Onu un Patto

globale per il clima’(La Stampa, 21 September 2017); ‘Secretário‐geral da ONU pede apoio

a pacto ambiental proposto pela França’(Naçoes Unidas no Brasil, 22 September 2017); L

Fabius and Y Aguila, ‘Un Pacto Medioambiental’(El País, 2 August 2018); ‘Global Pact Will

Boost International Environmental Governance’(The Guardian (Nigeria), 25 September

2018); ‘Appel de 100 Juristes pour l'Adoption d'un Pacte Mondial pour l'Environnement’(Le

Monde, 9 October 2018); Y Aguila et al, ‘The Time is Now for a Global Pact for the Envir-

onment’(The Guardian, 9 October 2018); ‘Uhuru: Kenya Committed to Fight against Cli-

mate Change’(Daily Nation (Kenya), 11 November 2018).

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See, e.g., ‘Global Perspectives on a Global Pact for the Environment’, Sabin Center for Cli-

mate Change Law (Columbia University, 20 September 2018) <http://blogs.law.columbia.ed

u/climatechange/2018/09/20/global-perspectives-on-a-global-pact-for-the-environment/>.

In addition, many meetings have been held around the world, including in Paris (Conference

‘Towards a Global Pact for the Environment’, La Sorbonne, 24 June 2017), New York (Con-

ference on the Global Pact for the Environment, Columbia University, 20 September 2017),

Bogotá (Symposium on the Global Pact for the Environment organized by the Attorney

General of the Nation, 1 March 2018), Brasilia (Round Table on the Global Pact for the

Environment, World Water Forum, 19 March 2018), Dakar (Conference ‘L'Afrique s'engage

pour la Planète’, 14 May 2018), Geneva (Conference on the Global Pact for the Environ-

ment at the UN International Law Commission, 10 July 2018), Santiago de Chile (Coloquio

‘Pacto mundial del medio ambiente, derechos humanos, y constitución’, 28 August 2018),

Québec (Conférence ‘Une opportunité pour un Canada plus vert? Le projet de Pacte mon-

dial pour l'environnement’, 21 September 2018), Ottawa (‘Le projet onusien de Pacte mon-

dial pour l'environnement: quelles implications pour le Canada?’, 24 September 2018),

Beijing (Conference on the Legal Aspects of a Healthy Environment, 12 October 2018),

Naples (‘Une patto globale per l'ambiente’, 19 October 2018).

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This article is part of a wider research project that brings together the knowledge and

expertise of several generations of international environmental lawyers from around the

world to contribute to the development of a Global Pact for the Environment (see Y Aguila

and JE Viñuales (eds), A Global Pact for the Environment: Legal Foundations (Cambridge

C‐EENRG, Advance version, 14 January 2019). The authors wish to acknowledge the partic-

ipation in this research project, the results of which will be published in the form of an edi-

ted volume, of the following contributors (in alphabetical order): Virginie Barral, Antonio

Benjamin, Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, David Boyd, Edith Brown Weiss, Neil Craik,

Pierre‐Marie Dupuy, Leslie‐Anne Duvic‐Paoli, Jonas Ebbesson, Francesco Francioni, Guil-

laume Futhazar, Shotaro Hamamoto, Marie Jacobsson, Walter Kälin, Yann Kerbrat, Ginevra

Le Moli, Sandrine Maljean‐Dubois, Makane Mbengue, Jane McAdam, Pilar Moraga, Nilufer

Oral, Michel Prieur, Alexander Proelss, Qin Tianbao, Lavanya Rajamani, Nicholas Robinson,

Monserrat Rovalo Otero, Jason Rudall, Christina Voigt and Zhang Meng.

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12277

RECIEL. 2019;28:3–12. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel

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