A healthy environment is a human right

Precious resource: The Yenisei river near Krasnoyarsk, Russia, is just one of many water sources that must be protected. — Reuters

FOR all its flaws, the United Nations remains the only plausible forum for engaging broad global challenges like sustainable development. The most important environmental achievements of the past 40 years – the rise of environmental awareness, the birth of key ideas such as sustainability or the common heritage of humanity and most importantly, global treaties for environmental protection – all bear the UN stamp in one way or another. We could have added environmental human rights to that legacy last weekend, but we failed.

Achieving the United Nations’ ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, which include universal water access, eliminating hunger and reducing inequality, will take more than increased funding, better aid programming and good governance.