In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) adopted a new global development framework, the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which includes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs thereby replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were supposed to be realized...

Since the first meeting of the G20 at the leaders’ level in Washington in November 2008, trade has been an integral part of their agenda. This first meeting took place at the peak of the global financial and economic crisis, which led to a strong contraction of world trade. Remembering the...

Until recently, environmental concerns have played only a marginal role in trade policy. The rulebook of the World Trade Organization (WTO) rarely touches upon environ­men­tal concerns and mainly features an exception clause for the protection of the environment (GATT, Art. XX). How­ever, the...

In the wake of the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks, carbon border adjustment measures are gaining momentum both in the European Union (EU) and in the United States (US). Observers regard it as politically inevitable that trade measures will be a necessary requirement for US climate...

The introduction of an array of protectionist measures in reaction to the global financial crisis obliges us to continue to closely monitor the development of protectionism and to implement measures to counteract it. Despite the introduction of various protectionist measures during and as a...

The Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO)talks is in its death throes. It could provide urgently needed stimuli for a rule-based enhancement of international trade, but there is currently no consensus on some of the main sticking-points. Probably the most important of these is the...

Palm oil production is currently the focus of much contentious debate. On the one hand, palm oil production has a substantial, positive (socio-) economic impact in countries which produce it, like Indonesia, and is a powerful engine of rural development. On the other hand, palm oil production...

The concept of sustainable development and the idea of an integrated approach that satisfies the complex linkages between water, energy and land should be part of a post-2015 development agenda. Water, energy and land are essential for many lifesupporting functions and key for satisfying basic...

Global economic governance stands for the institutions, regulations and mechanisms that manage the increasing interdependency of global challenges in the world economy and forms the foundation of stable global economic development. However, global economic governance remains largely mired in...

The UN Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in July 2015 will pave the way for the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda. The Briefing Paper series “Financing Global Development” analyses key financial and non-financial means of implementation for the new...