The Climate Governance Commission, Global Governance Forum and International Environment Forum have proposed an update to the UN Charter to include obligations for environmental protection. They argue that in order to have a chance of grappling with the complex set of global threats to our future, the world’s core global governance architecture, currently underpinned by the 1945 UN Charter, should
be updated, sooner rather than later, in order to make it equal to contemporary challenges.
A renewed UN Charter should recognize Earth system management as a fourth pillar of the UN – alongside peace and security, human rights, and social and economic development – and extend global governance to meaningfully cover these issues. This could include reform to give the UN the capacity to pass binding legislation to protect our planetary environmental system and the common goods it provides, with the necessary enforcement and dispute settlement mechanisms. Specific governance mechanisms to fulfill these tasks are currently being explored and developed.