UNGA as the Anchor: Global Environmental Conferencing

Abstract

It has been nearly 50 years since the pioneering first global UN Conference on Human Environment was organized in Stockholm in 1972. After that, several global conferences took place over the last decades. Some of them have been praised for their contribution to shaping international environmental institutions and international treaties; others have passed almost unnoticed by the wider public. Yet, these global environmental conferences have cumulatively provided the foundations for the development of international environmental policies and the progressive development of law. In the light of ongoing environmental degradation in the ‘Anthropocene,’ the further development of environmental governance seems more important than ever. Hence, this chapter seeks to examine how this future pathway would look like as regards the technique of global environmental conferences have hitherto shaped the existing structures of international environmental governance. It surmises that the UNGA could be described as an anchor that merely maintains the status quo of international environmental law and policy.