The Pact is to be a binding, universal “umbrella text” providing a common global legal basis for environmental policy principles.

USCIB will work with the administration to communicate member views on developments and plan for USCIB engagement in the first substantive negotiations that will be held in January 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya.

The first negotiating meeting for a proposed UN Global Pact for Environment (GPE) took place at United Nations headquarters in New York September 5-7. USCIB Vice President for Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Gabriella Rigg Herzog attended those deliberations, alongside USCIB members Pfizer and the American Chemistry Council (ACC). The meetings focused on organizing the GPE negotiating process and its future meetings, preparation of a UN Secretary General’s report on gaps in international environment policy that will serve as a basis for further negotiations and government positions and priorities relating to the GPE.

UN Member States have voted to launch a negotiation toward the development of a GPE earlier this year. An initiative of French President Emanuel Macron, the Pact is to be a binding, universal “umbrella text” providing a common global legal basis for environmental policy principles, such as the polluter-pays and precautionary principles, environmental rights-based approaches and other international environmental regulations and treaties.

“USCIB plans to submit a scoping paper for business on the GPE, raising questions and concerns based on what has already been agreed in relation to the GPE, such as the extent of U.S. business involvement in the negotiation process, assessment of GPE implications for international environmental policy and potential implications for the SDGs and existing environmental treaties, arising from the proposed GPE,” noted Rigg Herzog.

USCIB will work with the Administration to communicate member views on GPE developments, and plan for USCIB engagement in the first substantive negotiations on the GPE that will be held in January 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Please contact Norine Kennedy for more information, or to get involved in USCIB’s Environment Committee.