Global EcoLomic Governance

The Global Environment Facility is an exceedingly complex organizational mechanism since it not only needs to orchestrate the relations between the Implementing and the Executive Agencies, but most importantly it needs to include also the decisions (not to mention the personalities!) of the governing bodies of the related conventions, as well as other potential funding sources whose co-financing it attempts to achieve or catalyze. The documents selected for this page provide representative impressions of these institutional, inter-organizational, political, legal and economic stakes – a more in depth inquiry requires the consultation of the GEF’s Web site (www.theGEF.org).

As far as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of trade negotiations is concerned, it is fair to say that the international community is still at the very beginning and shows little interest in pursuing this highly important question seriously. The Doha Declaration in para. 32 encourages the sharing of such reviews but only at the national level, and at the discretion of each member country.