On 10 May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 72/277, paving the way for negotiations on a global pact for the environment – an international legally binding agreement that will combine the guiding legal principles for environmental action into one single text.

At a meeting of the ad hoc open-ended working group (5-7 September 2018) mandated by resolution 72/277, participants agreed that the group’s first substantive session should take place from 14-18 January 2019 in Nairobi.

The agreement under consideration would:

• provide a single overarching normative framework that sets out the rules and principles of general application in international environmental law;
• address the piecemeal and reactive character of what is regarded as the fragmented character of a large body of sectoral regulatory frameworks, which currently undermines coherence;
• clarify the content and status of many environmental principles incorporated in multilateral environmental agreements;
• address a lack of international consensus concerning environmental principles as observed by international courts and tribunals; and
• enhance implementation at both national and international levels.

The launch of a process to consider a “Global Pact” follows a call by 131 jurists in Paris 2018, led by Yann Aguila, President of the Environment Commission of the Club des jurists, Antonio Herman Benjamin, Justice at the National High Court of Brazil, Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental law, and Laurent Fabius, former President of the UNFCCC COP 21.