Growing concern over the effects of pollution and escalating use of natural resources has led to the development of a different kind of environmental agreements or legislations. The emphasis has shifted to a larger perspective at the same time the maxim - "Think Global and Act Local" has been followed taking a systems-oriented, cross sector approach towards environmental protection. Numerous environmental problems are beyond the capacity of any State to resolve. Many environmental issues span multiple countries and action in one country to address such an issue cannot be successful without simultaneous concomitant action in other countries. With due recognition to the fact, the international community has developed "multilateral environmental agreements"(MEAs) as a mechanism for establishing common frameworks and actions among countries to address shared environmental problems. |
 |
| |
The MEAs are negotiated between the countries sharing the environmental problems that require joint action to address. Since MEAs are negotiated and they address widely diverging topics within the environmental sector, the types of framework, action and implication on the cost to implement varies widely among MEAs and may imply or require widely differing actions among countries that are party to MEA. |
|
| |
MEAs are voluntary agreements and for a variety of political, technical, financial or other reasons not all countries that share an environmental problem are necessarily party to an MEA designed to address the problem. One consequence of the lack of universal implementation is that the ability of MEA to act as a catalyst and framework for environmental improvement may be compromised. In the process the MEA either fails deliver the function of its existence or does so at a much slower rate. |
|
| |
A majority of developing countries, fail to comply with environmental obligations due to lack of technical and financial capacity rather than from wilful violation. Therefore provisions for financial and technology transfer within MEAs are crucial in ensuring the success in meeting their agreed upon objectives, and they have been more effective in most of the cases than trade measures.
Note on adoption and status of participation of agreements:
The terms used in this section, denoting various stages in the status of participation related to international agreements, are legal-technical ones, based on the Law of Treaties as contained in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties |
|
| |
| and in the 1986 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations, as well as in customary international law. To provide easier reference for readers who are not lawyers, some basic explanations of terms used in the treaty-making process are here provided. |
| |
Upon the negotiation of a treaty, there are often several stages required before it enters into force: |
|
| |
Adoption is the formal act by which the form and content of a proposed treaty text are established. As a general rule, the adoption of the text of a treaty takes place through the expression of the consent of the states participating in the treaty-making process. As a rule, however, adoption does not yet mean a consent of a state to be bound by a treaty. |
| |
Signature may sometimes be definitive, meaning that it establishes the consent of the state to be bound by the treaty. This is usual in most bilateral treaties. For multilateral treaties, however, the signature is as a rule not definitive, meaning that the treaty is subject to ratification, acceptance, or approval in order to enter into force. Although in those cases the signature does not establish the consent to be bound, it is a means of authentication and expresses the willingness of the signatory state to continue the treaty-making process (i.e. to proceed to ratification, acceptance, or approval). It also creates an obligation to refrain, in good faith, from acts that would defeat the object and the purpose of the treaty. |
| |
Ratification defines an international act whereby a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties intended to show their consent by such an act. In the case of multilateral treaties the usual procedure is for the state to notify the depositary of its ratification; the depositary keeps all parties informed of the situation regarding ratifications. The institution of ratification grants states the necessary time-frame to seek the required approval for the treaty on the domestic level and to enact the necessary legislation to give domestic effect to that treaty. |
| |
Acceptance or approval have the same legal effect as ratification and consequently express the consent of a state to be bound by a treaty. In the practice of certain states, acceptance and approval have been used instead of ratification when, at a national level, constitutional law does not require the treaty to be ratified by the head of state. |
| |
Act of formal confirmation is used as an equivalent for the term 'ratification' when an international organization expresses its consent to be bound to a treaty. |
| |
Entry into force of an international treaty does not necessarily coincide with its ratification (acceptance, approval) by individual states. It is common for multilateral treaties to provide for a fixed number of states to express their consent for entry into force. Some treaties provide for additional conditions to be satisfied, e.g. by specifying that a certain category of states must be among the consenters. The treaty may also provide for an additional time period to elapse after the required number of countries have expressed their consent or the conditions have been satisfied. A treaty enters into force for those states which gave the required consent. A treaty may also provide that, upon certain conditions having been met, it shall come into force provisionally. |
| |
Accession is the act whereby a state accepts the offer or the opportunity to become a party to a treaty already negotiated and signed by other states. It has the same legal effect as ratification. Accession usually occurs after the treaty has entered into force. The conditions under which accession may occur and the procedure involved depend on the provisions of the treaty; a treaty might provide for the accession of all other states or for a limited and defined number of states. |
| |
| Multilateral Environmental Agreements |
| |
The Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India has provided a list of Multilateral Environmental Agreements in its website. To access information on these Multilateral Environmental Agreements. Click here |
| |
For further information, Contact: |
| Mail: envis@ciionline.org |
| |
