The killing of the Italian ambassador to the DRC and the lifting of U.S. Treasury sanctions against an Israeli businessman in the final hours of the Trump administration has again focused international attention on the interlocking crises in the DRC.

Several successive years of being one of the world’s fastest-growing economies have made Côte d'Ivoire a darling of investors bullish about Africa. But the country’s strong economic performance has not been matched by political progress in overcoming the divides that drove the country into civil war twice in the last twenty years. With elections scheduled for 2020, many of the same antagonists that featured in those earlier conflicts are jockeying for position, giving observers and citizens an unwelcome sense of déjà vu.

A Global Pact for the Environment would lend coherence to international environmental law, give greater legal and political heft to existing environmental covenants, and safeguard the imperiled biosp…