The Sweaty Penguin

Despite being the world’s most powerful international body on the environment, the United Nations Environment Programme is anything but powerful: monetary contributions from member countries are voluntary and enforcement of environmental treaties is non-existent. With climate change looming and UNEP struggling to facilitate bold climate action, many scholars have called for UNEP to be reformed into a new type of international organization with more power. But would a more powerful UNEP actually be more effective? Is there an even better way forward? Today, we take a step back to contemplate if the grass would actually be greener on the other side or not, and what considerations we must have in order to meaningfully reform UNEP in the future. With special guest Dr. Maria Ivanova: Associate Professor of Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise: a public media initiative from The WNET Group in New York, reporting on the issues and solutions around climate change. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise.

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