Upgrade UNEP: Governments  need to engage in negotiations for the up-grading of UNEP to a specialized UN agency, along the lines of the World Health Organization or the International Labour Organization.

International environmental organizations play vital roles in governance for sustainable development, but need further strengthening. Many reform proposals have been submitted in recent decades. Some of the more radical proposals – such as an international agency that centralizes and integrates existing intergovernmental organizations and regimes – are unlikely to be implemented and would yield uncertain gains. However, most of us see substantial benefits in upgrading the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to a specialized UN agency for environmental protection, along the lines of the World Health Organization or the International Labour Organization.

At the same time, it is important to increase the integration of sustainable development policy within the UN system and beyond. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) was created to fulfil this role, but its political relevance has remained limited. Governments must take action to support mechanisms within the UN system that will improve integration of the social, economic and environmental pillars of sustainable development. An upgraded, strengthened CSD that includes meaningful participation from all branches of government, is one route to consider.

This text is an excerpt from the Policy Brief Transforming Governance and Institutions for a Planet under Pressure. Revitalizing the Institutional Framework for Global Sustainability. A longer, fully referenced version of the policy brief is available as Earth System Governance Working Paper No. 17.

Meanwhile, the Earth System Governance Project has taken the initiative to further investigate the state and reform directions of the institutional framework for sustainable development and – based on existing knowledge and findings from science – to provide an ambitious vision for the required transformative change of governance for sustainability.  This vision is called the “Hakone Vision”, named after the venue of the workshop in which it was developed in September 2011. The Hakone Vision calls for a charter moment — the beginning of a reform process leading to transformative change of sustainability governance, and addresses in more detail ideas for a United Nations Council for Sustainable Development.