The United Nations Environment Programme aims to increase the knowledge of key stakeholders of environmental law and conventions through enhanced accessibility of information, and to support efforts to bring greater coherence to the implementation and enforcement of international environmental law. Effectively addressing global environmental challenges depends on a well-functioning and coherent governance framework and on a common understanding of each actor’s role and mandate. Collective Intelligence on knowledge systems among Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and organizations can greatly assist in overcoming institutional fragmentation.
Over the past decade, UN Environment has supported InforMEA, the United Nations Information Portal on MEAs. It is a one-stop portal for information on Multilateral Environmental Agreements or MEAs searchable by key terms across treaty texts, COP decisions, national plans and reports, laws, court decisions, and more.
The platform also features a free and self-paced e-learning platform with over 50 courses, a joint MEA calendar of events, a section geared towards MEA negotiators, and an in-depth Goals section where users can navigate the interlinkages between global goals and MEA strategic plans. Everyone involved in the environment community – from governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector – can benefit from accessing the InforMEA Portal. It organizes the world’s environmental law for those who need it, and it helps the world steer and implement global environmental policy. The initiative behind InforMEA is co-chaired by UNEP and CITES and brings together 25 MEA Secretariats hosted by 5 UN organizations and IUCN, in addition to observers and partners, to develop harmonized and interoperable information systems for the benefit of Parties and the environmental community at large. InforMEA is facilitated by UNEP and financially supported by the European Union.
The MEAs contributing to InforMEA cut across environmental issue areas, from Chemicals and Waste (Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm, and Minamata Conventions); to Biodiversity (CBD); Trade in Wildlife (CITES); Plants (IPPC and Plant Treaty); Ozone (Vienna Convention); Air Pollution (LRTAP); Wetlands (Ramsar Convention); Migratory Species (CMS); World Heritage (UNESCO-WHC); Deserts (UNCCD); Climate Change (UNFCCC and Paris Agreement); Marine and Freshwater (Regional Seas Conventions, UNCLOS, Water Convention, and IWC) and Environmental Governance (Aarhus Convention and Escazu Agreement). This dispersed environmental legal data comes together on InforMEA, searchable across topics in an intelligent and accessible way.
Main Highlights
For more information please visit the InforMEA website.
