IISD Reporting Services hasn’t yet reported from a meeting in 2007, but we already can see some of the year’s key sustainable development issues emerging. Positions taken at the informal consultations on environmental governance are likely to be raised again during the discussions of international environmental governance at the 24th session of the UNEP Governing Council/ Global Ministerial Environment Forum in February. The ASEAN countries’ Cebu Declaration on Energy Security and US President Bush’s State of the Union references to reduced gasoline consumption presage some of the debates likely to emerge during the Commission on Sustainable Development’s focus on energy in April-May. Jeffrey Sachs’ suggestion that an IPCC-like body for water be created reminds us of the consultations to take place this year on the proposal for an IPCC-like body on biodiversity, currently called the International Mechanism on Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB), as well as the process leading up to the adoption of the IPCC’s 4th Assessment Report in November. We will be reporting from all these processes and look forward to following these debates throughout 2007.
