On 15 February 2007, H.E. Mr. Enrique Berruga and H.E. Mr. Peter Maurer, Co-Chairs of the Informal Consultations on environmental activities taking place at the GA, briefed delegations on their attendance at the Paris Conference for Global Ecological Governance and the Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi which both took place in early February. A written report will be posted shortly on the website of the UNGA President at: http://www.un.org/ga/president/61/follow-up/environmentalgovernance.

As to the next steps in the consultations and the production of an options paper, the Co-Chairs indicated that some delegates had requested more time for submitting comments and delegations were asked to submit these by March 30. Unless there would be a specific request not to do so, these comments will be posted on the above mentioned website.

Delegations were challenged to deal with two key questions:

1) Why has it been difficult within the present institutional framework for those reforms that were agreed to earlier in Bali and Cartagena to be implemented in a meaningful way?
2) What should a more effective environmental framework look like and why would it improve implementation?

The Co-Chairs urged delegates to present national positions as they had noted that in Nairobi and capitals opinions sometimes seem to diverge from those presented at the GA. The Co-Chairs also plan three briefing sessions with leading authorities on UNEP, Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), and financing of environmental governance.