The ESCWA intergovernmental machinery consists of the Commission as the highest body within the organization and, reporting to it, the subsidiary bodies of the Commission, which are the legislative and consultative committees.

Pursuant to resolutions 158 (XIV) of 5 April 1987 and 196 (XVII) of 31 May 1994, the Commission sits once every two years, in even years. Since 2006, sessions have been convened in two segments, a high officials segment and a ministerial segment.

The objective of the group of experts on fossil fuels is to provide a forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue and exchange of information that will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and implement international agreements, particularly the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
 
The first meeting aims to establish the group of experts on fossil fuels and formulate its yearly regional program

Investing an additional USD 40 billion a year in the forestry sector could halve deforestation rates by 2030, increase tree planting by around 140 percent by 2050, and catalyze the creation of millions of new jobs. Those were among main findings of a report on forests produced by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and launched today by the UN Communications Group in a press conference in Beirut on the occasion of World Environment Day 2011 (WED).