Environment Programme, UN (UNEP)

Formation and Mission

The UNEP, established in December of 1972 through the UN General Assembly Resolution 2997 (27), was born out of the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, held in June of that same year.

The UNEP's mission statement is “To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.”

Structure and Roles

To meet its mission statement, the UN employs a secretariat of approximately 900 individuals. These staff members function as an executive department, applying the budgeted priorities of the UNEP, such as policy implementation.

The Governing Council (GC) of the UNEP, comprising 58 representatives from UN member states, is tasked with the diplomatic aspects of the program, such as facilitating collaboration between and within the UN and other agencies. The GC also authors the primary environmental policies of the UNEP, which are executed by the secretariat.

Representatives are elected by the UN General Assembly (GA) for three-year terms and are delegated based on six geographical regions. The GA also elects the UNEP executive director to a four-year term. The UNEP executive director is traditionally nominated by the UN Secretary-General.

The UNEP is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, and supported by six regional offices located in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, and west Asia. Each area is overseen by a regional director, who works in tandem with the nine members of the UNEP senior management team, overseen by the executive and deputy directors.

The UNEP is tasked with a series of important roles, which include (1) monitoring and evaluating known and potential environmental threats; (2) anticipating and preparing for future environmental crises; (3) conducting scientific research; (4) disseminating this research through reports, books, and popular media; (5) organizing and hosting regional and international conventions on relevant environmental issues; (6) raising global awareness on crucial environmental issues; (7) promoting joint environment-development projects; (8) developing and implementing regional and international environmental policies; (9) assisting member states in achieving environmental goals and meeting environmental mandates; and (10) coordinating environmental efforts with other arms of the UN.

These roles are administered through the following environmental priorities of the UNEP: climate change, resource efficiency, disasters and conflicts, environmental governance, harmful substances and hazardous waste, and ecosystem management.

Accomplishments

One of the primary challenges facing the UNEP concerns its institutional capacities, which are limited in scope by insufficient funding. Another difficulty includes traversing the diversity of political landscapes that constitute the body of its constituency. In spite of these challenges, several major global environmental accomplishments have been brought to fruition.

One of the UNEP's most widely recognized global achievements is the Montreal Protocol, an international environmental treaty established in 1987 to combat the destruction of Earth's ozone layer. The UNEP is also credited with the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988, and with the introduction [Page 371]and dissemination of the “sustainable development” concept through Our Common Future—a special report by the Brundtland Commission.

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