Time to shift focus to existing environmental laws, says new UN report

(Mongabay News, 25 Jan 2019) The most important thing we can do to address climate change isn’t to create new regulations, but ensure that countries comply with the regulations that already exist. That’s according to the first ever report on environmental policies worldwide, released by the UN on Jan. 24.

The most important thing we can do to address climate change isn’t to create new regulations, but ensure that countries comply with the regulations that already exist.

That’s according to the first ever report on environmental policies worldwide, released by the UN on Jan. 24. The report concludes that environmental concerns have reached every corner of the world, such that all countries have at least one environmental law or regulation in place – yet very few nations comply with them.

According to the report, 176 countries have environmental framework laws; 150 countries have enshrined environmental protection or the right to a healthy environment in their constitutions; and 164 countries have created cabinet-level bodies responsible for environmental protection, as of 2017.

Yet, worldwide there are still alarming rates of deforestation, loss of biodiversity, rising global temperatures, and the targeting of environmental rights defenders.

A recent report by the University of Maryland released by Global Forest Watch found that 2017 was the second worst year on record for tropical forest loss, losing 15.8 million hectares (39 million acres).

“It’s not that we shouldn’t develop more laws, but the emphasis needs to shift from development of policies and institutions to implementation and enforcement,” said Carl Bruch, director of international programs at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC and lead author of the UN study.

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Mongabay News, 25 Jan 2019: Time to shift focus to existing environmental laws, says new UN report