This article explores the possible need for a nem international body to add
ress environmental problems along the lines of a World Environment Organisa
tion (WEO). A case is made that existing institutions and policy mechanisms
for combating environmental problems have fallen short in several crucial
respects. Perhaps most notable among the failings of contemporary approache
s is a failure of internalisation. A WEO is argued to facilitate the intern
ationalisation of environmental costs, as well as redress many of the other
problems identified with existing international cooperative responses. The
article is a summary of a larger project on the perspectives of different
LDCs towards the possible creation of such an institution.