United Nations (UN)

The Environment: Early Years

The GA and the ECOSOC have been the most important bodies of the UN in addressing environmental issues. The GA sets norms and understandings of international relations between states as it is the one place where all states of the world gather to discuss issues of international concern and to make recommendations for action. ECOSOC is important not only for discussions among members states on issues related to the environment, but also for initiating environmental studies, coordinating the activities of different UN agencies, and preparing important international conventions and conferences related to environment. The Secretary General, as the chief administrative officer of the organization, ensures that the UN carries out the decisions of the Security Council, GA, and the ECOSOC on all matters including environmental issues.

During the initial years of the UN, environmental issues were not extensively addressed, yet there were several subsidiary UN organs that engaged environmental matters as they related to their particular missions. As early as 1965, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) started to deal with water resources and pollution, since one of this specialized agency's goals is to study, assess, and protect the world's natural resources.

UNESCO hosted the first Intergovernmental Conference on environmental issues known as the Biosphere Conference in 1968. The UN and subsidiary organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also attended this meeting. This conference was inspired by the idea that nature holds a delicate balance and human development is potentially damaging to it, thus, nature must be conserved, preserved, and protected. This conference led to the 1970 initiation of the biosphere experiment to determine human effects on the environment. During these initial years, the International Maritime Organization started to address problems with oil pollution of the seas. These were the early moves to broaden the scope of the general development issues addressed by the UN to include a clean environment and resource protection as important components of human development.

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