• Global negotiations on climate change: The greatest show on earth
    As this article goes to press, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is forging through yet another round of discussions and negotiations that strive to secure our common future. While nations around the world are scrambling to find solutions to their avalanching economies, scientists and small island states announce anxiously - and…
  • Climate change, agriculture and trade: Understanding the linkages
    Climate change will impact agricultural production and productivity around the world and the agricultural sector will have to adapt to climate change if we are to achieve global food security. Indeed, food security features prominently in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which calls for a stabilisation of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in…
  • Environmental provisions in economic partnership agreements: Implications for developing countries
    Bilateral and regional trade agreements (RTAs)[1] have proliferated over the past decade, and even as they set out the basis for their respective parties’ trade relations, their provisions have increasingly included environmental provisions. This trend has grown rapidly and stems from the recognition that economic and environmental policies are interlinked and should take account of…
  • Trading the environment: The importance of trade in climate change negotiations
    As climate change has in recent years come to the fore of the international agenda, increasing attention is being paid to the linkages between trade and climate change. A noteworthy example of this was the inclusion of a meeting of trade ministers on the sidelines of the thirteenth UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)…
  • Carbon labelling: Moral, economic and legal implications in a world trade environment
    Carbon labelling is the latest in an ever-growing trend of buzz concepts within the environmentalist community. The concept came into being in the United Kingdom in 2007 as an act by the Carbon Trust, in association with the British Standards Institute. Simply stated, carbon labelling strives to emblazon a product with a visible representation of…
  • BioRes interview: Appraising biodiversity
    How much would you pay for a little biodiversity? While some may call environmental commodification repugnant, the UN Environment Programme’s Green Economy Initiative is banking on the idea that economics holds much potential for biodiversity preservation. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, or TEEB, project is looking to put a price on the work the…
  • ICTSD update
    When the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) met earlier this year, it decided to include “patents and the environment, with a particular attention to climate change and alternative sources of energy” among the non-exhaustive list of issues identified at its June 2008 meeting for discussion in the…
  • ICTSD update
    The global agricultural sector must meet three major tests in the 21st century: 1) it must adapt to climate change and, where possible, play a role in climate change mitigation; 2) it must provide sustainable global food security for a growing population, and 3) it must make good on its promise of poverty alleviation -…
  • Upcoming events and resources
    Events 9-11 June, Jakarta, Indonesia. INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ADVANCED MATERIAL FOR NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY. Organised by the Research Center for Physics, Indonesian Institute of Sciences. 12-14 June, Basel, Switzerland. FOREST MOVEMENT EUROPE MEETING 2009. Organised by the Bruno Manser Fund and FERN. 16-18 June, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. SECOND AFRICA BIOENERGY CONFERENCE AND EXPO. 17-19 June,…