The Environmental Rule of Law: Tracking Progress and Charting Future Directions report provides a comprehensive assessment of developments since the release of the First Global Report on Environmental Rule of Law in 2019. Through collecting and analysing data from a survey of 193 UN Member States regarding their laws, institutions, civic engagement, rights and justice, the report highlights the most prevalent aspects of environmental rule of law across countries and tracks progress in addressing the triple planetary crisis.

Six cross-cutting findings are highlighted: the COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on environmental rule of law, both positive and negative; the recognition and integration of environmental rights has accelerated; there is growing attention to specialised environmental enforcement, particularly in the development and capacity building of institutions; women are champions of environmental rule of law; environmental rule of law is undergoing a technological revolution; and climate change continues to be both a dominant context for environmental rule of law efforts and a driver of actions to advance it.  

Further, the report makes four recommendations: standardize and track environmental rule of law indicators; develop guidance on environmental rule of law in emergencies and disasters; integrate social justice in environmental institutions; and establish a technology-policy interface.

This report seeks to fulfil the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) mandate to promote and advance environmental rule of law pursuant to UNEP’s 2013 Governing Council Decision 27/9, the 2019 United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) Resolution 4/20 which adopted the Fifth Montevideo Programme for the Development and Periodic Review of Environmental Law, as well as the Political Declaration of the special session of the UNEA to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of UNEP. 

This horizon scan reviews the historic trends, current status and future projections of three key pressures on biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The three pressures are:

• Physical loss and damage to the seabed;
• Removal of biological resources; and
• Ocean acidification. 

With respect to the proposed Implementing Agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, it is clear that an Implementing Agreement that reflects the current use level of the areas beyond national jurisdiction would not accommodate the anticipated long-term change in use and pressure patterns. This horizon scan helps to identify those future changes that need to be accommodated in the Implementing Agreement.

This assessment describes the far-reaching impacts of plastics across the planet and in our oceans. Plastics are a marker of the current geological era, the Anthropocene (Zalasiewicz et al. 2016). They have given their name to a new microbial habitat known as the plastisphere (Amaral-Zettler et al. 2020; see Glossary). Increased awareness of the negative impacts of microplastics on marine ecosystems and human health has led them to be referred to as a type of “Ocean PM2.5” akin to air pollution (i.e. particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres [μm] in diameter) (Shu 2018). With cumulative global production of primary plastic between 1950 and 2017 estimated at 9,200 million metric tons and forecast to reach 34 billion tons by 2050 (Geyer 2020) (Figure i), the most urgent issues to be addressed are how to reduce the volume of uncontrolled or mismanaged waste streams going into the oceans (Andrades et al. 2018) and how to increase the level of recycling. Of the 7 billion tons of plastic waste generated globally so far, only an estimated 10 per cent has been recycled (Geyer 2020). The assessment sets out to address four key questions to help guide future actions: • What can new research and evidence tell us about the environmental and human health effects and impacts of marine litter, including plastics and microplastics? • What is the latest understanding of the sources, pathways, behaviour and fate of marine litter, especially plastics? • What are the most effective field, laboratory and modelling approaches for monitoring and measurement of the sources, pathways, behaviour and fate of marine litter, including all sizes of plastics? • What ongoing responses and actions, environmental technologies and business solutions exist to tackle this urgent global problem?

This publication aims to provide a complete overview of the global challenges related to marine litter and plastic waste through a combination of condensed descriptions of key thematic areas and graphic illustrations that visually display trends, challenges, interlinkages and solutions. It is structured to provide first a general overview of modern society’s use of plastics, covering plastic production, consumption and waste generation. It then moves on to look at the main sources and pathways of marine plastic pollution, highlighting important sources such as packaging, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, microplastics, and the effect of special events such as natural disasters and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This is followed by further elaboration of the fate and impacts of plastic pollution in the marine environment, broader impacts on human health, and economic costs for society. Based on the picture of the current situation, the publication moves on to cover possible solutions to the broader plastics challenge, addressing various components. It describes challenges and possible solutions in the different parts of the waste hierarchy, from waste prevention and minimization to waste collection, recycling, recovery and disposal. It also provides an overview of challenges and solutions related to bioplastics, waste management in developing countries and socio-economically disadvantaged areas, and challenges and opportunities related to gender balance in waste management. Finally, it provides an overview of governance and policy solutions, covering the Basel Convention, national policies, global responses through the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), other global and regional initiatives, monitoring and assessment components, and broader systemic perspectives.

Public understanding of plastic pollution has risen considerably in the last couple of years. Far less understood is the broader context in which this pollution exists, and of the full extent of its impacts. Vulnerable communities around the world deal with the impacts of plastic waste and have historically been unable to inform environmental conversations on the matter. This report explores the injustices brought on by plastic waste and plastic pollution and examines how vulnerable communities are disproportionately and negatively affected during all stages of the plastic lifecycle. It reviews legal and policy frameworks, exploring historical successes and challenges, and proposes actions for various state and non-state stakeholders.

This guide, developed by UNEP and the World Resources Institute, is a tool to help legislators and policymakers explore options for reducing the harmful impacts of single-use plastic products; by regulating their production and consumption, promoting alternatives, as well as improving the management, recycling and final disposal of single-use plastic waste. It outlines the most used regulatory approaches and explains the main elements that legislators will need to consider when drafting legislation. Each type of regulatory approach is illustrated by examples of actions taken by governments around the world, including sample legal provisions.

The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals provide a guiding blueprint but to achieve them requires input from the full spectrum of global society. This demands that new stakeholders are rallied and empowered to engage in environmental action, policymaking, and governance. This includes faith actors, who have long been on the peripheries of secular multinational organizations, despite their tangible contributions in core areas of sustainable development and the immense influence faith continues to have throughout the world. Notably, and this is the primary focus of this paper, faith-based organizations share intrinsic notions of moral responsibility and human rights with multilateral organizations such as the UN, with their work grounded in strong spiritual ethics. The UNFPA notes that even seemingly secular organizations are “guided by values and ideologies, not always made transparent” and often originating in religious principles and values (UNFPA, 2014).

Faith for Earth: A Call for Action - describes the essential, unshakeable reverence that all religions have for creation and nature, and introduces the world’s major life support systems. We hope the book will give you information and inspiration to learn more about our planet, to share your knowledge and commitment to care for it, and to become part of the flourishing global interfaith movement that is increasingly bringing people together to protect and sustain life on Earth.

In the last 60 years, more than 40% of the world’s civil wars have been linked to control over natural resources such as land, oil, and water. Climate change is on track to make this situation worse, with unprecedented new impacts on the functioning ecosystems we depend upon for survival, as well as on where people can live and grow food, build cities, practice their faith, and raise their children in peace and health. The security implications of climate change are being recognized at the highest levels, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres has put it at the heart of our conflict prevention agenda.  The Secretary-General announced in April 2020 that “the global crisis we are facing today due to COVID19 pandemic is the gravest challenge since the establishment of the UN 75 years ago,” but it also remains an irrefutable fact that climate change continues to be one of the most systemic environmental threats that humankind has ever faced.

We are in a race against time that will require political will, innovation, inclusion, tolerance, values and ethics, financing and partnerships. We are calling on everyone—countries, cities, the private sector, individuals, and faith-based organizations—to strengthen their actions to mitigate climate change, restore ecosystems, and protect the health of the planet without delay. The world has the scientific understanding, the technological capacity, and the financial means to do this. We need to trust our abilities and act accordingly.

Our challenge is not that we do not know what to do—it is how quickly we can do it. The problem is massive, and such large and complex challenges will require transformational thinking, integration, and big movements. But it will also require progress on myriad smaller and manageable scales. We need faith-based organizations to be part of the global accountability and monitoring system to achieve the sustainable development goals, and we need a common ethical system of values no matter what religion we believe.

As we begin this century’s third decade, the new edition — produced through a partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme and the Parliament of the World’s Religions Climate Action Program — offers an introduction to the magnitude of the task we now face and to the faith communities that are becoming a force for the global environmental future. It is time, as never before, to call on our faith, our values, our religious teachings and traditions – on Faith for Earth. And it is time for action.

This book was first published at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A joint project of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment, it was titled Earth and Faith: A Book of Reflection for Action.