High Priority for Environmental Governance in the UN

Global environmental governance was announced  as one of the priority areas for the United Nations in its 65th Session of the General Assembly (UNGA). Swiss national Mr. Joseph Deiss was elected president of the Session, which will open on 14 September 2010. In his first speech, as is customary for the president-elect, Mr. Deiss announced the issues that will be given most attention and that will mark the work of the UNGA in the course of the year.

“New global challenges such as climate change, food security, and economic and financial crises need collective and urgent responses,” he stressed. The search for lasting solutions to these challenges will require governance that better reflect the new balance of the power in the world.”

In a press conference on 15 June, Mr. Deiss elaborated that a key aspect of improved global governance will be to further promote the effectiveness and credibility of the work of the UNGA. A reform should be sought of both the General Assembly and the Security Council in order to revitalize each entity. Building bridges between UN bodies will be imperative for achieving greater coherence within the United Nations, where various agencies are operating through different vantage points while seeking solutions to the same problems. The UNGA should work to establish connections also with new groups, including the Group of 20. Read the Greening the Blue article on the press conference here.

Beyond governance, issues such as poverty, human rights, food security, climate change and biodiversity will be priorities of the president elect’s tenure. Increased efforts should be made towards the achievement of a green economy, as a topic closely linked to the environment, global warming and poverty eradication. The UNGA will open with the MDG Summit, a high-level debate on progress and gaps in meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

Mr. Deiss ensured his absolute commitment and motivation, and reminded the member states: “Our mission is to do our best to cooperate for the benefit of our planet and of human kind. The people of the world are watching us with hope, and we do not have the right to let them down.”