The Untold Story of the World’s Leading Environmental Institution
The past, present, and possible future of the agency designed to act as “the world’s environmental conscience.”
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) was founded in 1972 as a nimble, fast, and flexible entity at the core of the UN system–a subsidiary body rather than a specialized agency. It was intended to be the world’s environmental conscience, an anchor institution that established norms and researched policy, leaving it to other organizations to carry out its recommendations.
In this book, Maria Ivanova offers a detailed account of UNEP’s origin and history. Ivanova counters the common criticism that UNEP was deficient by design, arguing that UNEP has in fact delivered on much (though not all) of its mandate.
Lynn Johnson is a physicist by education and has worked as an executive coach and a strategy consultant for over 20 years. In her work she pushes for systemic change, not piecemeal solutions, this includes campaigning for modernising the legal trade in endangered species, to help tackle the illegal wildlife trade.