Everybody's a Loser
The World Trade Organization's recent ministerial meet in Seattle, USA, will be remembered more for the protestors who turned the venue into a …
Trade vs environment
Nine years since the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was created, the environmental impacts of trade liberalisation in the region …
Biodiversity or Biotrade?
Competing goals of free trade and environmental protection puts the much-awaited Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety indefinitely on hold
Shifting weight
In the weeks leading up to the Seattle meet of the WTO, both the US government and the trade organisation have been trying to appease Western greens
Modified treaty
The Biosafety Protocol has finally been adopted in the hope that it will bring some transparency into the trade in genetically-modified products. …
Beware of Policymakers
PEOPLE, PLANTS AND PATENTS: THE IMPACT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ON BIODIVERSITY, CONSERVATION, TRADE AND RURAL SOCIETY·Crucible group&…
Death Inside The Factory Gates
Asbestos makes homes, but it also causes cancer. The "indestructible" substance is increasingly being cast aside by developed countries,…
Battle for turf
If the South wants to protect its interests against the power of the Bretton Woods institutions and WTO, it will need its own, equally powerful forum
Polluter says' principle
GEF should have been a liability fund, rather than a 'guilt fund' set up by the North to make up for the global damage it had caused
Free, not fair
Does a country have the right to demand that its domestic standards on environmental protection be applicable to all countries?
Wood-headed proposal
After almost 10 years of fighting for or against a forest convention, there is not even a common view on why forests are under threat and what …
Toxic travellers
Developing countries are wary of the proposed treaty as chemicals like DDT are still used in many malaria-prone regions for vector control
Rio's stepchild
Northern countries still see desertification as a local problem caused by population pressures rather than international trade patterns and …
Biodiversity
To energise the biodiversity convention, the world will have to first deal with difficult countries like the US
Boiling point
Climate change negotiations get emotional because carbon dioxide emissions are closely related to individual lifestyles - and to national …
Fair farming
The European Union buckles under the pressure of the developing countries to reduce agricultural subsidies
Trade truce
It was neither a victory for the North nor a defeat for the South. Environment took centrestage as the main bargaining chip, but the discussions …
Undue haste
US hard-sells environmental goods at WTO meeting
Gore goes green
Many environmentalists doubt Al Gore's green concerns
Promoting desertification
UNITED NATIONS
Greening WTO
Delegates from 130 countries debate linkages between trade and environment
Trade tactics
Imposing environmental trade sanctions on the South will not help, note experts
Dirty business