IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB Meeting Coverage, has provided daily web coverage and a summary and analysis report from the 3rd Substantive Session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group Towards a Global Pact for the Environment. The summary and analysis report is now available in HTML and PDF.

Photos by IISD/ENB | Natalia Mroz

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Co-Chair Amal Mudallali, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Lebanon

Jamil Ahmad, Director, New York Office, UNEP

The delegation from India discusses the draft text.

Delegates review the text during the discussions.

Marcus Davies, Canada

Erasmo Martinez, Mexico

Patrick Luna, Brazil, Kerri Holland, United States, Fernando Coimbra, Brazil

Solveig Crompton, Norway, confers with Co-Chair Amal Mudallali

Arno Kreilhuber, UNEP, and Elizabeth Mrema, Director, Law Division, UNEP

Wael Aboulmagd, Egypt, and Andres Cordova, Ecuador

Delegates in discussion

Delegates study the draft text.

Informal morning breakout session, moderated by Norway and Colombia

L-R: Delegates Solveig Crompton, Norway, and Elizabeth Taylor, Colombia, co-facilitate informal discussions.

Delegates from the Russian Federation confer during the session.

The delegation from Cameroon

Panelists and delegates pose for a photo.

Highlights for Tuesday, 21 May 2019

One year on from the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of Resolution 72/277 (“Towards a Global Pact for the Environment”) and the establishment of the open-ended working group (OEWG), delegations prepared to intensify informal negotiations at the UN Office at Nairobi.

Delegations at the third substantive session of the OEWG prepared for late night informal negotiations on some of the recommendations to UNGA that will help define the pathway, the prospects and the promise of a high-level outcome.

On the second day of the OEWG session, Co-Chairs Franciso António Duarte Lopes, Portugal, and Amal Mudallali, Lebanon, presented a revised version of their non-paper (25 April 2019) on recommendations to the UNGA on objectives, substantive recommendations, and the modalities for passing them on to UNGA. The new zero draft had been posted Monday evening (20 May 2019), on the basis of that day’s deliberations and submissions to the Co-Chairs, and is organised in three sections:

• Guiding objectives;
• Substantive recommendations; and
• Recommendations to UNGA in support of taking forward the substantive recommendations.

The third and defining section on the shape of recommendations on modalities to UNGA remained in brackets. It was these options, including the adoption of an international instrument at a high-level UN conference and the establishment of a preparatory committee to make substantive recommendations to UNGA during the first half of 2020 on elements of an international instrument, which were the subject of intensive rounds of negotiations on Monday and Tuesday evenings.

Proposals on the table range from a recommendation that UNGA adopt a resolution to consider an international instrument at a UN conference at Heads of State or government level by 2021--possibly marking the historic 50th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment--to inviting UNGA to simply circulate recommendations to States and make them available to Secretariats of MEAs.

The Co-Chairs' zero drafts are available here.

Co-Chair Francisco António Duarte Lopes greets a delegate before the start of the meeting

Delegates review the draft recommendations before the start of the discussion

Shard, India

Akram Mirzakhani, Iran

Helge Elisabeth Zeitler, European Union

Abdullah Tawlah, Saudi Arabia, speaks to Andrew Neustaetter, US, and members of the US delegation

Fany Beatriz Ramos Quispe, Bolivia

Delegates in discussion

Ather Aljarboa, Saudi Arabia

Delegates confer during the break.

Highlights for Monday, 20 May 2019

The third and final substantive session of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) established by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 72/277 (“Towards a Global Pact for the Environment”) convened in plenary in the morning and afternoon, before breaking out for informal discussions.

In plenary, delegates were invited to respond to a non-paper prepared by Co-Chairs Amal Mudallali, Lebanon, and Francisco António Duarte Lopes, Portugal, which had been circulated in April. The non-paper has three sections:

1. Elements related to the objectives informing the recommendations of the OEWG;
2. Elements related to the substantive recommendations of the OEWG; and
3. Elements related to the process.

Differences mainly emerged in response to "Elements related to the process", including references to “the adoption of an international instrument at a high-level UN conference”, establishing a “preparatory committee” ahead of the 73rd session of the UNGA in 2020, a timeline, and open “negotiations.”

In mid-afternoon, having noted the wide range of opinions, including assertions that no consensus exists on a new international instrument, whether binding or non-binding, the Co-Chairs mandated two delegates, Elizabeth Taylor, Colombia, and Solveig Crompton, Norway, to co-facilitate informal discussions on section three of the non-paper. Delegations welcomed the informal setting for discussions, with some noting that the format had come late in the process; and took the opportunity to detail the rationale behind their positions on the merits of the section.

The Co-Chairs also undertook to prepare a “zero text” for Tuesday on sections one and two.

To read the Co-Chairs’ non-paper, please click here.

Elizabeth Mrema, Director, Law Division, UNEP

Co-Chair Amal Mudallali, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Lebanon

Video message from María Fernanda Espinosa, President of the General Assembly

Jamil Ahmad, Director, New York Office, UNEP

A delegate takes a photo of the dias.

A delegate takes notes.

Kathryn Youel Page, United States

Dimitry Maksimychev, Russian Federation

Troy Torrington, Guyana

Meriem El Hilali, Morocco

Delegates confer during the session.

Fernando Coimbra, Brazil

Shanchita Haque, Bangladesh

Elizabeth Taylor Jay, Colombia

Raoul Renard, International Chamber of Commerce

A delegate examines event materials