UN Environment Assembly – UNEA

The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment, with a universal membership of all 193 UN Member States. UNEA meets biennially to set priorities for global environmental policies and develop international environmental law. The Assembly provides leadership, catalyzes intergovernmental action on the environment, and contributes to the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UNEA also serves as the governing body of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

UNEA was established as a result of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, also known as Rio+20) in June 2012, where the outcome document, The Future We Want, called on the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to strengthen and upgrade UNEP. The UNGA then adopted resolution 67/213 on strengthening and upgrading UNEP and establishing universal membership of its GC. In March 2013, the UNGA further adopted resolution 67/251, which changed the designation of the UNEP Governing Council (GC) to the UNEA of the UNEP.