The UN Environment Programme: Thinking Globally, Retreating Locally

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) marked its 25th anniversary last December in a state of disarray. UNEP is arguably the world\u27s most important international environmental agency. No other organization can match its track record of success in coordinating the negotiation and implementation of international environmental treaties. But since early 1997, UNEP has been on the brink of bankruptcy and institutional extinction; and now, facing pressure to reform, the organization is likely to pursue policies that would aggravate tensions over environmental policy between the industrialized North and the developing South. According to its critics, UNEP has drastically overextended its mandate over the past decade by failing to set clear priorities and by undertaking missions and projects for which it lacks the resources and expertise to implement. In so doing, the organization has drained both its coffers and its credibility, while confidence in the agency has eroded among the richer nations that fund most of its operations. At a time when the United Nations (UN) in general is under tremendous pressure to downsize and reduce costs, UNEP has come to be seen by many donor governments as a wasteful and ineffective bureaucracy