"There was a time when the United States led the way on international environmental cooperation," writes Maria Ivanova in the prestigious academic journal SAIS Review, published by John Hopkins University Press. (...) In the article, co-authored with Daniel C. Esty, an environmental law professor, Ivanova describes the U.S. effort that was instrumental in launching the U.N. Environmental Program in 1972. President Richard Nixon pledged to contribute 40% of the $100 million that initially capitalized the environment fund."