Defining environmental governance as "how we organize ourselves to be more responsive to environmental challenges", the Swiss Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Peter Maurer, spoke on this topic at an event organized by the United Nations NGO Committee on Sustainable Development on 5 December 2006. As co-chair of Informal Consultative Process on the Institutional Framework for the United Nations' Environmental Activities, which delivered a report to the 60th General Assembly in June 2006, Mr. Maurer has extensive experience working with this issue.

Global attention to environmental issues, particularly global warming, is high at this moment, said Mr. Maurer. He added that the film by former United States Vice President Al Gore, "An Inconvenient Truth", which was released in May, and an October 2006 report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern for the Government of the United Kingdom, which predicts serious economic consequences if countries do not take action against global warming, have given visibility to the issue. He also said that the environment had been high on the global agenda after 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but attention to the topic had faded through the 1990s.

Debates around environmental governance had been reinvigorated by the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, said Mr. Maurer. Representing a compromise between all Member States, the Outcome Document recognized the need for a "more coherent institutional framework" for environmental activities at the United Nations and its agencies. Bodies that deal with the environment include the United Nations Environment Programme, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya; the United Nations Development Program, and the Commission on Sustainable Development, both in New York; the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, headquartered in Bonn, Germany; and the World Bank and the Global Environmental Fund, headquartered in Washington, D.C. The main challenge is to make sure these institutions are organized rationally and effectively, and are pursuing environmental goals in an efficient manner, said Mr. Maurer.

He explained that, to a large degree, the language of the Outcome Document represented a compromise between the position of the United States, which did not want to address the topic of environmental governance, and France, which sought to create a single organization that would handle environmental issues-a "UNEO" (United Nations Environmental Organization).

Mr. Maurer said environmental issues tend to break through traditional groupings of States at the United Nations, such as the "Group of 77" developing countries. Instead, common positions arise among countries that have problems with such issues as desertification, flooding or rising sea levels. While large countries, such as the United States, India, Brazil, South Africa and Nigeria often "have their own views" regarding the environment, he said countries that stand to suffer negative consequences, such as Small Island States, are more open to tackling environmental issues, because they perceive more direct benefits from resolving them. Environmental consciousness is also growing in the Russian Federation and China, he added, and these countries represent a "moving target" with regards to the environment.

Responding to a question, Mr. Maurer said one way to move forward was to integrate UN bodies working on the environment on the Internet. This would be a relatively easy step that could ensure participation with civil society and help integrate systems "without major political cracks". He also said that virtual integration would easier than convincing a country currently hosting an environmental secretariat that it should relinquish hosting an organization.

Roma Stibravy, Chairperson of the UN NGO Committee on Sustainable Development, offered an alternative view, saying that "UNEP and the Commission on Sustainable Development secretariat should be one [organization] headquartered in New York". She added that environmental issues should be at the center of global affairs. "Terrorism, civil and cross-border wars are considered global threats. The environment should be brought to the same level of concern and consideration", she said.