At a recent meeting of the World Bank in Paris, Lionel Jospin, the French prime minister, called on the United Nations to establish a world environment organisation to create and enforce environmental regulations. The call reflected the sense of urgency in addressing global environmental problems. But such a proposal might delay, rather than hasten, action.
Advocates support the establishment of an agency for a number of reasons.
First, they attribute the UN's lagging environmental efforts to the fact that environmental tasks are fragmented and performed by too many unco-ordinated agencies and treaties. Second, they decry the lack of enforcement mechanisms in most existing treaties - they claim that a new agency would have more authority and would do a better job. Third they say the agency would help transfer environmental technologies and finances to developing nations. And finally, they appeal to the need for a counterweight to the World Trade Organisation, which they consider inimical to environmental goals. None of these reasons has a sound basis.