EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.CONTEXT OF THE RECOMMENDATION

The development of a new instrument of international environmental law aiming to complement and improve the coherence of international environmental law and to facilitate the implementation of existing obligations under international environmental law, has been initiated by an international group of legal experts with the support of the French government. On 24 June 2017, a draft text of a "Global Pact for the Environment" (hereinafter referred to as "the Pact") was presented at Sorbonne University in Paris. The President of the French Republic committed on this occasion to introducing the project of the Pact to the United Nations General Assembly, and the project was presented to the United Nations on 19 September 2017, in the margins of the ministerial week of the General Assembly's 72nd session.

The main objectives of the Pact, as set out by its proponents, are:

·To include in a legally binding treaty the fundamental principles of environmental law, already included in universal political declarations, so as to make them enforceable before internal courts.

·To make universal the main provisions of legally binding conventions that are not universal.

·To add new principles, in view of new challenges – the draft text prepared by the lawyers includes, for example, principles of non-regression and resilience, as well as a duty of care for the environment.

[To be updated once the Resolution will have been formally submitted and/or adopted] Further to the 19 September 2017 meeting in New York, an ad-hoc group of countries led by France drafted a procedural resolution for adoption by the General Assembly. The draft resolution was made available electronically for co-sponsorship on 20 December 2017 [and officially presented to the General Assembly on [insert date] 2018]. The proponents aim to have the resolution adopted in March 2018, so that formal negotiations on the Pact can start during the spring of 2018. Through that resolution, which is still subject to informal discussion in New York and has not yet been formally submitted, the General Assembly would:

·decide to develop an international instrument, called "Global Pact for the Environment", that would aim to complement and improve the coherence of international environmental law and facilitate the implementation of existing obligations under international environmental law;

·decide to establish, prior to holding an intergovernmental conference, an open-ended intergovernmental working group to negotiate a Global Pact for the Environment, which would meet in New York, from 2018 until preferably 2020;

·request the President of the General Assembly to appoint two co-facilitators to lead the consultations and negotiations of the working group, in regular coordination and consultation with all Member States, regional groups, and all relevant stakeholders;

·decide that the first meeting of the working group will examine matters related to the organization of work among members of the group;

·request the Secretary General to arrange for support to be provided by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), for the performance of its work, secretariat services and the provision of essential background information and relevant documents;

·request UNEP to provide the necessary assistance for multi-stakeholders consultations in order to collect input on the main elements of a Global Pact for the Environment;

·recommend that the open-ended intergovernmental working group concludes its work no later than 2020.

The proponents of the Pact have made it clear that during the negotiating process, the work carried out by the legal experts would not be considered as a 'zero draft'. The French delegation informed the Council of the European Union and the European Commission about this initiative in the framework of meetings of the Working Party on International Environment Issues (WPIEI-Global), starting in September 2017.

2.RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS