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The open-ended meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (OECPR) to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) convened for the second time since its 2013 inception from 15-19 February 2016, at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. Attracting some 400 participants, the meeting was tasked primarily with considering an initial set of 24 draftresolutions proposed as key outputs of this year's UN Environment Assembly to UNEP (UNEA-2). UNEA-2 is scheduled to take place in May 2016 under the theme "Delivering on the Environmental Dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" (2030 Agenda).
Functioning as the world's "de facto Parliament for the Environment" by convening the world's environment ministers on a biennial basis,1 UNEA succeeds UNEP's Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF), which met annually between 2002 and 2012 with 58 UN Member States to review important and emerging environmental policy issues. In line with efforts to "strengthen and upgrade" UNEP as agreed at Rio+20,2 the GC/GMEF was bolstered with universal membership and subsequently renamed "UNEA" in 2013. Traditionally, the work of UNEP's governing body has been supported by the Nairobi-based Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) to UNEP, which holds four meetings a year. In 2013, Member States additionally mandated the convening of a biennial OECPR to enable capital-based delegates and stakeholders to contribute to preparations for governing body meetings. So it was that in March 2014, the first meeting of UNEP's OECPR was convened in anticipation of the historic first UNEA three months later.
While not evading all of the procedural and organisational difficulties that had hampered its first session (for example, carving out the hierarchy between the CPR and OECPR remains a key challenge), OECPR-2 was by all accounts a more substance-rich gathering than its precursor, and attracted greater engagement from Member States.3 It can be welcomed as a milestone in the maturing of the UNEA process.
This brief note highlights a few key issues that the meeting's packed agenda brought to the fore which can be expected to resurface in the run-up to and during UNEA-2, and will help determine its success.
DraftResolutions
Throughout the week, Member States at OECPR-2 met in five different clusters to discuss draftUNEA resolutions related to: i) environmental governance and education; ii) chemicals, waste, and sustainable consumption and...