-
Aid for trade and climate change financing mechanisms: Maximizing benefits from complementarities
Trade and climate change issues are intricately linked, especially in Africa, whose economies rest on agriculture, a sector that is highly vulnerable to climate change. The cumulative evidence shows that sub-Saharan Africa will be the most affected region of the world. Climate change-induced events, such as droughts, global warming and sea-level rise, will have substantial…
-
Editorial
As TNI was going to press, thousands of government officials, scientists and activists had descended on Copenhagen, Denmark, for the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15). Expectations for COP 15 were significantly dampened in the lead up to the conference. The road to Copenhagen has featured a string of lacklustre meetings that failed to…
-
News and Publications
News European Trade Commissioner selected by EC President The former Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht has been chosen by the President of the European Commission to lead the EU’s international trade negotiations. De Gucht has been selected to take over as the EU’s trade commissioner from Lord Baronness Catherine Ashton of Upholland, who was appointed…
-
Trade, climate change and agriculture: Towards a low-carbon future
Even if the most ambitious climate change mitigation measures are adopted, global temperatures are likely to rise by at least 2O C since pre-industrial levels by the end of this century, if not sooner[1]. The resulting increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme climatic conditions and decrease in predictability of normal rainy seasons could…
-
Trade, climate change and tourism: Responding to ecological and regulatory challenges
The challenge of climate change is particularly significant for the developing world in the context of the tourism and travel industry; the sector is both a victim (i.e. increased health and natural disaster risks) and vector of climate change through the contribution of the airline and cruise ship industry to greenhouse gas emissions (GGE). It…
-
Trade, climate change and fisheries: Building resilience through trade-policy reform
The fisheries sector provides a source of direct and indirect employment for some 200 million people worldwide. It also plays a crucial role in advancing food security, accounting for a large source of per capita animal protein intake in many coastal areas. Overexploitation of fish stocks, however, is threatening the survival of this industry in…
-
Energy poverty, renewable energies and the Economic Partnership Agreements
It is widely recognized that the availability of modern, reliable, and efficient energy services is an essential driver for development. Modern energy supports productive activities, is a determining factor of costs and global competitiveness and, in this sense, a pre-requisite for sustained economic and social growth. Yet, sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by some…
-
Standard as protectionist device: the EU Renewable Energy Directive
In its Renewable Energy Directive, adopted earlier this year, the European Union has ushered its biofuels policy farther in the direction of protectionism. The professed environmental ambition to substitute fossil fuels with biofuels is warranted, but the design of Europe’s biofuels policy and the Renewable Energy Directive has moved away from this ambition. Too…
-
The Treaty of Lisbon: Implications for EU trade policy
The Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) entered into force on 1st December 2009. This article first summarises the three main changes the new treaty brings about with respect to external trade and then considers how these might affect African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. As much depends on how the ToL is implemented, the real implications…
-
Free-trade agreements: the other side of liberalization
The degree and pace of liberalization necessary for a free-trade agreement (FTA) to comply with WTO rules (especially Article XXIV of GATT) remains an important discussion point in EPA negotiations[1]. This article helps clarify the different interpretations of Article XXIV by analysing some 40 free-trade agreements notified to the World Trade Organization, including interim EPAs.…
-
WTO Roundup
Trade ministers meet in Geneva Trade ministers from around the world descended on Geneva on 30 November - 2 December for the WTO’s first formal Ministerial Conference in four years. The ministerial was intended to review the WTO’s activities and discuss the institution’s role in aiding recovery from the global economic crisis. It was not billed…
-
EPA Update
EU Ministers adopt a series of conclusions on development and external relations policies The EU’s General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting on 17 November 2009 adopted conclusions on the European Communities development and external assistance policies; on an operational framework on aid effectiveness; and on policy coherence for development.[i] This opens a variety of…
-
Events
December 30-3 18th Session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly meeting, Luanda, Angola 1-2 EPA information seminar in the EAC region, Nairobi, Kenya 1-3 Meeting of the UEMOA / ECOWAS Joint Technical Secretariat, Abuja, Nigeria 1-3 UN conference on South-South Cooperation, Nairobi, Kenya 3-4 UNIDO Ministerial Conference…
-
Resources
Resources - All references are available at: www.acp-eu-trade.org/library Updating EPAs to Today’s Global Challenges: Essays on the Future of EPAs, Marti and Jones (ed), Economic Policy Paper Series, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, 19 November 2009, www.gmfus.org Decisions and Resolutions of the 90th session of the ACP Council of Ministers (16-19 November),…