International Environment:

U.S. Actions to Fulfill Commitments Under Five Key Agreements

GAO-02-960T, Jul 24, 2002

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The United States is bound by five international environmental agreements related to climate change (Framework Convention), desertification (Desertification Convention), the earth's ozone layer (Montreal Protocol), endangered species (CITES), and North American environmental cooperation (North American Agreement). However, the United States fell short of meeting a commitment or pledge in two areas--providing financial assistance to other nations and timely reporting. Agencies use informal means, such as meetings and informal communications, to track their actions to fulfill commitments under the five agreements. GAO found few studies that evaluated the effectiveness of the U.S. actions. These few studies generally concluded that the actions examined had positive effects.