The current system of environmental governance is a diffuse process, spread through many different treaty bodies and other U.N. institutions. At present UNEP, is the primary environmental organ in the system.

The first 200 words of this essay...

INTRODUCTION

When the United Nations was founded in 1945, environmental issues were not yet on most national agendas, let alone on the international agenda. As a consequence, the U.N. Charter does not even mention the word "environment". In the years since, environmental degradation has emerged as a pressing international concern. Wind currents, rain patterns, rivers, and streams carry pollutants hundreds or even thousands of miles from their sources, violating national borders with impunity. On an even larger scale, the global environmental problems of ozone depletion, climate change, deforestation, and the loss of the Earth's biological diversity threaten all nations.1 Furthermore, recent research identifies population growth and natural resource scarcity as important factors in exacerbating social tensions and provoking conflict in many corners of the globe.

As the problems have worsened, environmental issues have gradually moved onto the international political agenda. To date, governments have adopted more than 170 environmental treaties concerning subjects of shared concern: acid rain contamination, ocean pollution, endangered species depletion, hazardous waste exportation, and Antarctica preservation. More than two-thirds of these agreements have been reached since the landmark 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. This conference created the United Nations