MEAs, or Multilateral Environmental Agreements, are agreements between states to address environmental issues. They can establish legally binding obligations or set non-binding principles. MEAs aim to remedy transboundary environmental problems and are negotiated and agreed upon by many states. They cover issues like biodiversity, land and marine protection, atmospheric and waste pollution. MEAs create frameworks for international cooperation on important global environmental challenges.

1. Multilateral
Environmental
Agreements
(MEAs)

2. What are MEAs?
MEAs or Multilateral Environmental Agreements are
agreements between states which may take the form of “soft-
law”, setting out non legally-binding principles which parties
are obligated to consider when taking actions to address a
particular environmental issue, or “hard-law” which specify
legally-binding actions to be undertaken toward an
environmental objective.
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3. Other terms of MEAs are the following:
Many global environmental issues don’t stop at the border:
• they are caused by sources thousands of kilometers away;
• they can have a regional or even a global impact.
MEAs are international legal instruments that:
• have a goal of environmental protection (sustainable development);
• take measures to remedy, mitigate or otherwise deal with global and/or regional
environmental concerns;
• are concluded between a large number of states or international organizations as Parties;
• can be embodied in a single instrument or more related instruments;
• are governed by international law;
• are concluded in written form.

4. Scope of MEAs: 5 Topics
1. MEAs related to protection and conservation of BIODIVERSITY.
• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD);
• Others include CITES, CMS, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands etc.

5. 2. MEAs focusing on protecting LAND from “negative
altering”.
• UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD);
• 3 Rio Conventions linked to climate change and biodiversity.

6. 3. MEAs relevant to the REGIONAL SEAS & MARINE
ENVIRONMENT.
• 17 Regional Seas Conventions;
• Global Program of Action for the protection of the marine
environment from land-based
activities (GPA).

7. 4. MEAs aimed at protection of the ATMOSPHERE from
pollutants.
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• Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer;
• UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the
linked Kyoto Protocol.

8. 5. MEAs dealing with hazardous WASTES & CHEMICAL
pollution.
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• Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movement of
hazardous wastes and their
disposal;
• Rotterdam Convention on the prior informed consent for certain
hazardous chemicals and
pesticides in international trade;
• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

9. MEAs are international instruments states enter into,
addressing particular environmental issues.They play
a vital role in the development of overall environmental
frameworks from the global, regional, national to sub-
national levels of governance and cooperation