Trade | Ecologic Institute: Science and Policy for a Sustainable World

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Project

Trade for Sustainable Development - ITC Standards Map

October 2009 to July 2010

The project aims to enhance transparency on voluntary sustainability standards and increase opportunities for sustainable trade. It addresses these challenges by collecting, organizing and disseminating information on voluntary sustainability standards and related research results in a web-based tool. This web-based tool called ITC Standards Map centralizes information such as the standards' content requirements, the related verification and certification mechanisms, product scope, market outreach and standards-related research results. The information is made accessible to producers, exporters, trade promotion organizations, trade support institutions, policy-makers, and intermediate private or public buyers.Read more

Project

Climate

Trade

Ecologic Legal

Legality of Measures Addressing Carbon Leakage

October 2009 to June 2010

Differences in national climate protection policies can lead – at least in principle – to "carbon leakage", i.e. the relocation of industries to countries with less stringent climate change legislation and a subsequent increase in greenhouse gas emissions in those countries. In a legal study for the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), the Ecologic Institute and WTI Advisors analyse whether measures to address carbon-leakage are compatible with EU and WTO law. The study is available for download.

Publication

Keeping Illegal Fish and Timber off the Market

A Comparison of EU Regulations

Illegal fishing and logging, and the international trade in illegally sourced fish and wood products cause enormous environmental and economic damage. Consumer countries contribute to the problem by importing fish and timber without ensuring legality – a problem the EU tries to address with two new regulations. In this briefing paper, Duncan Brack, Heike Baumüller and Katharina Umpfenbach compare the recently adopted EU regulations on illegal fish and timber products. The authors contrast the very different approaches and highlight areas that might need further strengthening.Read more

Project

International Development

Trade

Trade and Environment

September 2009 to October 2009

Environmental technologies are key for an environmentally friendly and sustainable world economy. International trade and private investment will play a critical role in promoting the widespread use of environmental technologies. Within this context, Ecologic Institute analyzed the relationship between environmental protection, trade and development. This study is available for download.Read more

Project

Climate

International Development

Trade

Ecologic Legal

Assessment of Proposals on Climate Tech Transfer

August 2009 to January 2010

Technology transfer is one of the central issues in the international climate negotiations, reflecting a general consensus that effectively mitigating climate change and adapting to it will require the wide-spread use of climate-friendly technologies. Despite this consensus, many of the details – such as funding, institutional mechanisms and the role of intellectual property – remain controversial. Through this project, the Ecologic Institute examined national and international proposals made in the context of recent UNFCCC technology negotiations. Prospective rules and mechanisms incorporated in existing drafts were also analyzed. The final study is available for download.

Publication

Trade and Climate Change

Triggers or Barriers for Climate-Friendly Technology Transfer and Development?

In their policy paper for the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation’s Dialogue on Globalization section, Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf and Christiane Gerstetter of Ecologic Legal, shed light at the most important aspects of the relationship between trade and climate change policies. They investigate which trade-related policies should be adopted to combat climate change and review the compatibility of those measures with the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Particular attention is given to issues that are of relevance to developing countries. The first focus of the paper is on the transfer of climate-friendly technologies to developing countries.Read more

Project

Climate

Trade

Ecologic Legal

Trade and Climate Change

November 2008 to January 2009

In the framework of this project, Ecologic wrote a policy paper shedding light at the most important aspects of the relationship between trade and climate change policies. The policy paper investigates which trade-related policies should be adopted to combat climate change and reviews the compatibility of those measures with the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Particular attention is given to issues that are of relevance to developing countries.

Presentation

Climate Change: Are Border Adjustment Measures only the Third-Best Option (Out of Three)?

TimeLoc

15 September 2008

Berlin

Germany

Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf

Michael Mehling, LLM

Border Adjustment Measures (BAM) have been discussed as a tool to equalize costs that industries with stringent greenhouse gas requirements have to bear, as some international competitors do not face these costs and allegedly enjoy a free ride. At a workshop of the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf and Michael Mehling discussed whether BAM are an adequate tool to address competitiveness concerns arising from the EU's ambitious climate change policies.

Publication

International Trade Policy in a World of Different Carbon Prices

More and more instruments require the internalisation of greenhouse gas emissions costs. Yet it is very unlikely that a single global price for carbon will prevail. A frequently voiced concern is that states with stringent climate policies will place domestic industries at a disadvantage relative to competitors in states with less ambitious climate efforts. In this chapter, published in the briefing paper "Competitive distortions and leakage in a world of different carbon prices" for the European Parliament, the Ecologic authors Michael Mehling, Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf und Ralph Czarnecki analyse restrictive trade measures to offset the regulatory burden of climate policies, particularly border adjustments, from a legal point of view.Read more

Publication

From Autonomy to Integration?

International Law, Free Trade and the Environment

In recent years, the debate on trade and the environment seemed to lose some of its earlier controversy: after a string of highly polarizing cases before the WTO, the Appellate Body’s Article 21.5 Implementation Report in the Shrimp/Turtle case appeared to finally herald a period of reconciliation between free trade and environmental concerns. Upon closer analysis, however, this assessment proves to be misleading: as a matter of substantive law, the chasm between both issue areas is still substantial.Read more