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

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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 mechanismsRead more

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

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

Project

Climate

Trade

Ecologic Legal

Legal Issues and Challenges in Trade and Competitiveness Post 2012

May 2008 to June 2008

In a briefing paper for the European Parliament's Temporary Committee on Climate Change, Ecologic analysed whether climate-related border adjustments are permissible under WTO law. Restrictions on international trade have been suggested as a means to address “carbon leakage” – the relocation of manufacturing activities (and thus greenhouse gas emissions) to states with less ambitious climate efforts and more relaxed environmental standards. The paper concludes that climate-related border adjustments are not, as a matter of principle, ruled out by international trade law, provided thatRead more

Presentation

Transatlantic Program

Climate Change and the Economy

TimeLoc

28 April 2008

Berlin

Germany

R. Andreas Kraemer

As part of the celebration of its 25th anniversary, the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) hosted a workshop on "Globalization, Trade, and Environment: German-American Cooperation or Confrontation?" in Berlin on 28 April 2008. R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic moderated the panel on Climate Change and the Economy.

The Speakers were: