The UN Charter’s environmental blind spot
There is no mention of the environment in the present UN Charter. It was only in 1972 that the UN organised its Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, and 20 years later that the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio adopted Agenda 21 and the Conventions on Climate Change and Biodiversity, followed by Desertification. The World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002 barely managed to hold the line. Then Rio+20 in 2012 started the more integrated process that led to the Sustainable Development Goals.
But the resulting architecture is diffuse: there are more than 500 multilateral environmental agreements, highly fragmented and unable to prevent or reverse the existential threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and global pollution. The direction of travel is increasingly grim. The pushback now is such that improving global environmental governance was omitted at the last minute from the Pact for the Future last year, and we are going in reverse. Yet the state of the planet is not negotiable; diplomacy and politics cannot ultimately ignore or deny scientific reality.
A fourth UN Pillar: The Earth System Council
The Second UN Charter proposes in Chapter XII the creation of an Earth System Council as the fourth pillar of the UN, alongside peace and security, economic and social development, and human rights. This would bridge a critical gap in international environmental governance and remedy the significant fragmentation in the current system. The Council would provide strategic direction and coordinated action for the governance of the global commons and the Earth System.
It would consolidate and streamline existing frameworks, drawing from both their strengths and failures, and reduce the current duplication of effort. A coherent, system-wide approach to interrelated environmental crises—climate, biodiversity, pollution, and beyond—is urgently needed, and an Earth System Council would provide the institutional backbone to support it.
Tools for transformation: from UNEP to global environmental governance
Chapter XII offers member states the flexibility to take essential steps: coordinating global environmental policy, harmonizing international environmental law, and overseeing the negotiation, implementation, and eventual consolidation of global environmental treaties. UNEP would be elevated to the status of a Global Environment Agency, serving as the executive organ of the Earth System Council.
Moreover, a Science Panel for Earth System Risks would be established, integrating assessments across climate, biodiversity, chemicals, plastics, and waste. This panel would combine natural and social sciences with other knowledge systems to create a holistic view of the state of the Earth System—land, oceans, atmosphere, and even near-Earth space—providing a strong scientific foundation for action.
The momentum for change is building
Since the release of the draft Second UN Charter in 2024, the response to the Earth System Council proposal has been overwhelmingly positive. The need for more coherent and effective global environmental governance is widely recognized, as multiple environmental crises reach existential proportions. Extreme climate change is already happening, with irreversible tipping points possibly already crossed. Biodiversity collapse is accelerating, and global pollution affects human health across all continents.
Current legal frameworks are insufficient, largely voluntary, and failing on implementation. State and corporate actors frequently evade responsibility, profiting at the expense of vulnerable populations. A new framework is needed—one that shifts from absolute sovereignty to a model of shared stewardship and responsible autonomy in managing the global commons.
Beyond climate: avoiding further fragmentation
The Brazilian Government, as host of COP30, has proposed a Climate Council to accelerate action. While laudable in urgency and ambition, such a body risks reinforcing the compartmentalized nature of global environmental governance. Climate, biodiversity, pollution, and ecosystem health are deeply interlinked. A more effective approach would be to grant a broader mandate to an Earth System Council, with the capacity to evolve over time and to respond to the full range of environmental crises, beginning with climate.
The ICJ speaks: legal accountability for environmental harm
The recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion on state obligations in respect of climate change strengthens the case. It confirms the general responsibility of states for the global common good and frames climate breakdown as a source of severe, wide-reaching harm to ecosystems and people alike. The opinion explicitly targets fossil fuel dependence, warning that failure to act on emissions—including licensing, subsidies, and consumption—may constitute an international wrongful act.
Crucially, the ICJ refuses to silo environmental obligations into narrow treaty frameworks. It affirms that customary international law applies even to non-parties and that states are responsible for the actions of corporations within their jurisdiction. The opinion opens the door to legally enforceable remedies—restitution, restoration, and compensation—based on scientifically demonstrable causation between emissions and harm.
The creation of an Earth System Council is not a technical adjustment; it is a civilizational imperative.
The time for a global governing framework is now
The ICJ opinion underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive institutional framework like the Earth System Council, grounded in scientific reality and legally empowered to act. Environmental crises are not isolated events to be managed reactively—they are symptoms of a deeper systemic failure in global governance. A piecemeal approach will no longer suffice.
We are approaching—or may already have crossed—critical tipping points in the Earth System. Delay risks irreversible damage. The creation of an Earth System Council is not a technical adjustment; it is a civilizational imperative. It would represent a foundational step toward planetary stewardship, moving from fragmented and voluntary regimes to integrated, accountable, science-based governance in service of the global commons and future generations. There is no time to lose—and no viable alternative.
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