There is an obvious relationship between texts of international conventions, those of European strategies and the measures taken by the environmental public authorities to implement the commitments made before international organisations and the European Union.

The expression “International Convention” is used in international law to describe formal statements of principles that are initially not binding. These conventions generally have to be ratified by the States to become binding and thus become true international treaties.

International bodies such as the United Nations are accustomed to such texts. Thus, the United Nations framework convention on climate change and the United Nations convention on biological diversity, deriving from the Rio Conference of 1992, laid the foundation for most of the policies that have been defined in these areas up the present day.

With the European Union Treaty of 1992, environment became a Community policy. This date marks a transition to a more horizontal, comprehensive and proactive EU. The roadmap called "A resource-efficient Europe" which includes several strategies including the "Biodiversity Strategy 2020" is a good example and clearly reflects this evolution. 

Measures taken by the Federal government in response to international and European initiatives are presented in the following topics:

citizen's environmental rights,
marine environment,
Antarctica,
biodiversity,
climate changes,
chemical substances.