CCSI and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), under the guidance of Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the SDGs, and Laurent Fabius, President of the Constitutional Council of the French Republic, will host a one-day conference to present and discuss the blueprint for a Global Pact for the Environment. The conference will build on the successful June 2017 launch of the Global Pact in Paris, which brought together prominent leaders to discuss the draft pact and its role in moving the environment and development agendas forward. Speakers at the launch included Ban Ki-moon, President Emmanuel Macron, Mary Robinson, Paul Polman, and other pacesetting advocates of global environmental governance.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Since its adoption, state and non-state actors around the world have progressively contributed to the circulation and implementation of fundamental principles enshrined in the Declaration. In its November 2015 report Increasing the Effectiveness of International Environmental Law: Duties of States, Rights of Individuals, the Environmental Commission of Le Club des Juristes (CDJ) proposed the adoption of a Global Pact for the Environment to serve as a binding, universal “umbrella text” synthesizing the principles outlined in the Rio Declaration, the Earth Charter, the World Charter for Nature, and other instruments shaping environmental governance.
Coinciding with the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, this Conference will offer a high-level opportunity to explore the complex legal and political challenges of the Global Pact in light of existing agreements and soft law principles on the environment, and the current global political scene.
