Consultations held in mid- to late June on international environmental governance have focused on institutional reforms and other ways to improve compliance with environmental treaties.

The second round of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) consultations on the institutional framework of the UN environmental activities opened on 13 June 2006 at UN headquarters in New York, with a second meeting held on 20 June and a follow-up briefing on 27 June.
During the meetings, the EU reiterated its proposal to transform UNEP into a UN specialized agency to be known as the UN Environment Organization (UNEO). This agency would exercise cross-cutting functions for multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) such as information exchange and centralization, regional and global coordination of activities, and streamlining of the international agenda of MEA meetings. The US expressed doubts as to the need to transform UNEP into UNEO. The group of developing countries (G-77/China) prioritized the consideration of environmental matters within the context of the other two pillars (economic and social) of sustainable development, called for more effective assistance to developing countries, and cautioned against the total or immediate restructuring of UN activities or architecture. Switzerland supported UNEP’s role in facilitating the adoption of administrative structures and work programmes for all MEAs, and for MEAs to report to the General Assembly through UNEP. New Zealand prioritized clarifying the environment-related mandates of different UN bodies and programmes, and respecting the autonomy of MEAs. IUCN-The World Conservation Union recommended: merging the EMG and the UN Development Group into a UN Sustainable Development Group; integrating sustainable development into the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), with the Commission on Sustainable Development merged into a high-level segment of the reformed ECOSOC for environment, development and finance ministers; and developing social and environmental safeguard and mainstreaming policies for all UN operational agencies.
On MEA compliance, several participants stressed the need to hold fewer and shorter MEA-related meetings and to concentrate on challenges in national implementation, with some calling for an overarching coordination of MEA activities or for MEA clustering. One participant proposed targeting compliance-related activities to address capacity needs, while others called for a clearer division of labor between UNEP and the UN Development Programme, with the former focusing on building environmental expertise for implementation on the ground, and the latter on field operations.
On 27 June, a summary of the 13 and 20 June consultations was presented at UN headquarters, together with the results of a study on global environmental governance. According to IISD Reporting Services’ sources, after consultations on the summary document, this will be transmitted to the High-level Panel on System-wide Coherence and to the incoming UNGA President as a possible basis for further UNGA consultations in 2007.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly’s budgetary committee is considering a request from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to lift the spending cap on the remainder of the United Nations’ two-year fiscal period. The spending cap stems from a December 2005 decision of Member States to adopt a budget for the 2006-2007 biennium but to limit spending authorization to six months, pending significant progress on UN reform. On 21 June 2006, the group of developing countries (G-77 and China) called for the spending cap to be lifted immediately and without restriction, while donor nations indicated that more time was needed to come to a consensus agreement.

Links to further information
G-77 Statement, 13 June 2006
EU Statement, 13 June 2006
Switzerland Statement, 13 July 2006
Co-Chairmen’s Summary