ISLAMABAD, April 20: Pakistan is closely following the ongoing debate in international forums to elevate the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) into the United Nations Environment Organisation (UNEO) with significantly increased funding, and expanded scope of the Global Environment Facility to include all environmental issues.

The proposed UNEO would be modelled on the World Health Organisation, which has more clout than the UNEP, and could help coordinate government action, promote funding, research and ways to spread new technologies, sources told Dawn.

At present, United Nations does not have a specialised agency for the environment; UNEP is only a mediating body, without financial means and legislative powers. It has been proposed that UNEO would be based in Nairobi built on existing structures.

A number of countries, led by France, were in favour of the creation of UNEO, and French President Jacque Chirac recently hosted an international conference on environmental governance in Paris to garner support for his proposal. President Chirac is retiring next month after 12 years as president, and the ongoing debate will make it clear who would be next champion of the idea, but it is likely that Morocco will be in driving seat after Chirac’s retirement.

Evidently, the first ‘friends group’ conference of the organisation of the United Nations for the environment hosted by Morocco, ended in the southwestern port city of Agadic on Saturday.

The conference was held in accordance with the appeals made during the conference for worldwide ecological governance which was held in Paris in February, aiming at calling up international communities to fight against the ecological crisis and setting up the UNEO.

Pakistan is still undecided to support or oppose the creation of UNEO, but is participating in the ongoing debate. Federal Minister for Environment Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat represented Pakistan at the first ‘friends group’ meeting in Agadic, and called for a consensus on the creation of UNEO.

Mr Hayat highlighted the commitment of Pakistan to mainstream and address environment as critical area for sustainable development. Many countries, including China, is supporting Pakistan’s stand, says a statement released by Mr Hayat’s office in Islamabad.

The group of ‘Friends of UNEO’ which is set up at the Paris conference gets together over 50 countries currently, with a mission of implementing measures and decisions for environmental protection in the world.

It is learnt that the Group-77 is not in favour of a new UN Environment Organisation, arguing that what was needed was the implementation of the agreements reached at all of the UN summits since the environment summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

There were already a host of recommendations on environmental development contained in the Millennium Project’s Environmental Task Force report.

At the same time, the European Union is in favour of the transformation of UNEP into a specialised agency. Among the countries, which participated in the Paris conference, such as South Africa, Brazil, China and India, were stated to have opposed to the creation of a UNEO.