Summary This article explores the possible need for a new international body to address environmental problems along the lines of a World Environment Organisation (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 approaches is a failure of internalisation. A WEO is argued to facilitate the internationalisation 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.