MEDIA REPORTS
TRADE, FINANCE AND
INVESTMENT IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
This page was updated
on: 01/26/10
2006
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DECEMBER 2006
UNEP LAUNCHES RESPONSIBLE PROPERTY INVESTMENT
GROUP
The UN Environment Programme's Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has
launched a working group on responsible property investment. The group
will seek to "embed environmental thinking in the heart of
property
investment portfolios" with the aim of encouraging the financial
services sector to play a pivotal role in halting climate change and
supporting sustainable investment. The new group was launched in Paris
on 8 December.
Link to further information
UNEP FI information
EU WILL NOT APPEAL WTO BIOTECH RULING
The European Commission has decided not to appeal the World Trade
Organization (WTO) panel ruling on genetically modified organisms (GMOs),
which concluded that the EU moratorium on GMO approvals, its failure to
approve a number of biotech products, as well as the national-level bans
in several EU Member States, violate WTO rules. According to reports,
the decision was criticized by several civil society groups, who
expressed concern that some of the panel's conclusions could undermine
other bodies of international law.
Links to further information
ICTSD
Bridges Trade BioRes, 1 December 2006
Reuters News Service, 22 November 2006
Additional resources on the WTO case
NOVEMBER 2006
WORLD BANK 2006 GREEN
AWARD PRESENTED TO SHRIMP FARMING CONSORTIUM
The Consortium on Shrimp Farming and the Environment, which was
formed in 1999 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank, WWF and the Network for
Aquaculture Centres for Asia Pacific, has won the World Bank's 2006
Green Award. The Consortium has established to investigate key issues,
encourage policy debate and make recommendations for better management
practices in an industry that is often criticized for its negative
effects on the environment. It produced the International Principles for
Responsible Shrimp Farming, which addresses issues including the design
and location of farms, the use of feed, and the social impacts of
aquaculture on local communities.
Links to further information
UN News Release, 9 November 2006
FAO News Release, 9 November 2006
US$1.4 BILLION ANTICIPATED OVER 10 YEARS FOR CENTRAL
ASIAN SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME
Five Central Asian countries and more than a dozen development
cooperation partners have launched the Central Asian Countries
Initiative for Land Management (CACILM), a ten year programme promoting
sustainable land management (SLM). The 16 November 2006 launch comes
after several years of work between five Central Asian Countries,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and the
Global Mechanism of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the
Asian Development Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency,
the CCD Project of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ),
the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, the
International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Swiss Agency for
Development Cooperation, the UN Development Programme, the UN
Environment Programme and the World Bank. The Global Environment
Facility is also contributing funding for this project, which is
anticipated to result in investments of US$1.4 billion to restore,
maintain and enhance the productivity of degraded land and improve the
livelihoods of local communities in the five countries.
Link to further information
Global Mechanism CACILM webpage
UNGA TO CONSIDER
FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT RESOLUTION
The Group of 77 and China has presented a draft resolution for
approval by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the follow-up to and
implementation of the outcome of the International Conference on
Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico in 2002. The
resolution was drafted following discussions in the Second Committee
from 9-10 October 2006. The proposed resolution schedules a follow up
meeting for the 2002 Conference, to be held in Qatar in 2008, and
requests UNGA to hold, starting in January 2007, open consultations with
all member States on all issues related to the review conference,
including progress made, lessons learned and obstacles and constraints
encountered. It also proposes to hold the 2007 High-level Dialogue
back-to-back with the spring meeting of the Economic and Social Council
and the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization and the
UN Conference on Trade and Development
Link for further information
Financing for Development website and link to Document A/C.2/61/L.5
SEPTEMBER 2006
GEF
PRESENTS COUNTRY ALLOCATIONS FOR BIODIVERSITY AND CLIMATE FOCAL AREAS
The Global Environment
Facility (GEF) has followed up the GEF Replenishment Agreement with a
table of resources to be made available for the biodiversity and climate
change focal areas (US$1,000 million each), according to the Resource
Allocation Framework (RAF). Allocations include US$100 million to
support projects within the Small Grants Program and cross-cutting
capacity building programs and projects, and an equal amount to support
regional and global projects in both focal areas. The remaining US$1800
million will be distributed among a group of countries with individual
country-indicative allocations and the rest of the countries as "a
group."
Link to further information
GEF
Document, 15 September 2006
UN SECOND COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS FINANCING FOR
DEVELOPMENT
Financing
for development, strengthening disaster relief efforts and the impact of
commodity prices on developing economies are among the topics the UN
General Assembly's Second Committee (Economic and Financial) will
consider during the Assembly's current sixty-first session. According to
the Committee's organization of work,
issues slated for review include macroeconomic policy questions, such as
those directed at the international financial system, debt and
commodities; follow-up to and implementation of the outcome of the
International Conference on Financing for Development; humanitarian and
disaster relief assistance; information and communication technology;
and globalization and interdependence.
Links to further information
UN
news release, 20 September 2006
UN General
Assembly 61st Session webpage, September 2006
SECOND ANNUAL CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE SECURES
US$7 BILLION IN PLEDGES
Over
200 pledges of funding worth a reported $7.3 billion were made
during the second meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, held
from 20-22 September 2006 in New York, US. The Initiative addresses
four issues: climate change, poverty, health care and religious and
ethnic conflict. After numerous plenary and working sessions on
these issues during the three-day meeting, each participant at the
meeting was expected to make an original, specific and measurable
commitment. Attendees who do not make or keep their commitment will
not be invited to attend future meetings. The 2006 pledges included
Richard Branson's pledge to invest the next 10 years' profits from
him Virgin Group's airline and train businesses in renewable energy
initiatives, an estimated commitment of US$3 billion.
Link to further information
Clinton Global
Initiative website
GEF EXAMINES URBAN TRANSPORT EMISSIONS
Two presentations by the GEF during the
GEF Assembly highlighted its interest on urban transport as a means to
reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in developing countries. In the
first case, Monique Barbut, GEF's CEO, said the GEF will support efforts
by the South African government to improve its urban transport
infrastructure leading up to the 2010 Football World Cup through pilot
projects aimed at developing sustainable transport alternatives that
deliver GHG reductions above and beyond those currently planned.
The GEF
also presented a report on experience gained in funding urban transport
projects, highlighting the development of modern public transport
systems in Jakarta, Indonesia, Mexico City and the Philippines, along
with a determination to cut GHG emissions in
the fast growing cities of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The GEF
estimates that for every dollar of the around US$2 million invested in
urban transport, there will be a two dollar return in health and wider
environmental benefits.
Links to further information
GEF Press releases:
21 August 2006
28 August 2006
AUGUST 2006
WORLD BANK EXAMINES CLIMATE RISK MANAGEMENT
The World Bank has presented a report on "Managing Climate Risk:
Integrating Adaptation into World Bank Group Operations." The
report, which was presented during the GEF Assembly in Cape Town, ,
affirmed that by enhancing climate risk management, development
institutions and their partner countries will be able to better
address the growing risks from climate change and, at the same time,
make current development investments more resilient to climate
variability and extreme weather events. The report suggests that
adaptation to climate change should be addressed through a climate
risk management approach and summarizes the World Banks´ strategy to
climate proof its operations, which includes: integrating climate
risk management at the outset in project design through an early
climate risk-screening tool; integrating climate risk management
development strategies and country and sector dialogues; and
enhancing the scope of funding for adaptation.
Link to further information
World Bank
Press Release,
August 29, 2006
BRAZIL
PUBLISHES NATIVE PLANT NAMES TO PREVENT TRADEMARK MISUSE
The
Brazilian government has published a list of more than 5000 generic
plant names in a move to prevent further trademark disputes with
companies that, for example, take a name of a Brazilian fruit in
Portuguese and trademark it to get exclusive rights to commercialize
it under that name in a certain country or region. Brazil has
distributed the list to trademark offices around the world, hoping
it will be used as a basis for consultation with parties involved.
The focus of the list is solely on generic names from the Portuguese
language used in Brazil that are associated with Brazilian
biodiversity, not all Portuguese generic terms.
Link to further information
Intellectual Property Watch report, 4 August 2006
FINANCIAL RESOURCES STILL FLOWING OUT OF
DEVELOPING COUNTRIESREPORT
Developing countries continue to experience increasing net transfers
of financial resources to developed countries, according to a new
report by the UN Secretary-General. In his report, International
Financial System and Development published in July 2006
(A/61/136), Kofi Annan observes that outward transfers of financial
resources from developing countries to developed countries reached
an estimated US$527 billion in 2005. The exception is the net
transfers to sub-Saharan Africa, which were positive, but declined
in 2005. Net transfers from countries with economies in transition
to developed countries rose to $80 billion in 2005. The latest
report follows other recent reports on follow up to the
International Conference of Financing for Development and on the
debt crisis.
Link to further information
UN ESA website
JULY 2006
WTO HEAD LAMY URGES "G8 + 5" TO SAVE DOHA ROUND
Addressing the Group of Eight Summit in St. Petersburg on 17 July
2006, Pascal Lamy, WTO Director-General, emphasized that differences
in negotiations are not insurmountable but positions will need to be
more flexible if the development round is to contribute to the
Millennium Development Goals. Lamy told leaders of the G8 states and
"G5" large developing nations that governments are still separated
by "a few billion trade-distorting agricultural subsidies, and that
would have to be eliminated or transformed within a few years; a few
billion in supplementary agricultural exports for some, and hence
supplementary imports for the others, and a similar order of
magnitude for industrial products." He urged countries to consider
that current deadlocked negotiations may lead to a failure of the
Doha Round, which he said would strike a "blow to the development
prospects of the three quarters of WTO Members whose economies are
poorer or weaker than [those of the G8+5] and for which integration
in international trade represents the best hope for growth and for
improving their systems of governance."
Links to further information
WTO
Press Release, 17 July 2006
ICTSD, Bridges,
12 July 2006
JUNE 2006
WORLD BANK ANNOUNCES AVIAN FLU FACILITY
The
European Commission and World Bank have set up an Avian and Human
Influenza Facility that will provide grants for countries to reduce
the social and economic impact of avian influenza and minimize the
possibility of a human 'flu pandemic in developing countries. The
European Commission will contribute 46 million to the facility.
Link to further information
World
Bank
Press Release, 7 June 2006
FREE TRADE DEALS MAY HASTEN FOREST DESTRUCTION –
REPORT
A free
trade deal between the US and Malaysia may encourage illegal logging
in Southeast Asia, according to the Environmental Investigation
Agency (EIA), an international not-for-profit organization that aims
to expose environmental wrongdoing. According to the EIA, demand for
timber exports, approximately a third of which is illegally-cut
wood, could surge with a free trade agreement. The EIA has urged the
US government to enact a law prohibiting entry of illegal timber
imports into the US before signing pending free trade agreements
with other timber trading nations.
Links to further information
Illegal logging press release (21 June 2006)
Reuters news article
(16 June 2006)
MAY 2006
EBRD INVESTS IN ENERGY INITIATIVE
The
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has launched a 1.5
billion initiative to support efforts to reduce energy waste and
pollution in over two dozen countries.
Links to further
information
WBCSD/AFP
news article, 22 May 2006
EBRD
Press Release, 19 May 2006
Address to EBRD annual meeting by Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State
for International Development, 22 May 2006
Agence France-Presse report, 22 May 2006
APRIL 2006
ANNAN SECURES MAJOR BACKING FOR NEW "INVESTMENT
PRINCIPLES"
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a group of the world's largest
institutional investors have launched a new initiative aimed at ensuring
more responsible investment. The new "Principles for Responsible
Investment" was supported by the heads of leading institutions from 16
countries, representing more than $2 trillion in assets. Officially
signed at a special launch event at the New York Stock Exchange on 27
April, the amount of assets involved subsequently doubled during the
European launch of the initiative at the Palais Brongniart in Paris on 2
May. The Principles were developed within a process convened by the UN
Secretary-General and coordinated by the UN Environment Programme
Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact.
More than 20 pension funds, foundations
and special government funds, backed by a group of 70 experts from
around the world, held meetings in Paris, New York, Toronto, London, and
Boston over an eight-month period to craft the Principles.
"We are
proud to endorse the Principles, which recognize that social and
environmental issues can be material to the financial outlook of a
company and therefore to the value of our shares in that company," said
Denise Nappier, Treasurer of the State of Connecticut, who is the
principal fiduciary of $23 billion in pension fund assets. "Financial
markets tend to focus too heavily on short-term results at the expense
of long-term and non-traditional financial fitness factors that could
affect a company's bottom line. For many institutional investors it is
the long-term that matters and in this context environmental, social and
governance issues take on new meaning."
Links to further
information
UN
Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI)
Statement of the UN Secretary General, 27 April 2006
UNEP
Finance Initiative
UN
Global Compact
WORLD BANK PUSHES EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS FROM GAS
FLARING
Carbon dioxide emissions from gas flaring will amount to about 13% of
committed emission reductions by developed countries under the Kyoto
Protocol for the period 2008-2012, according to the World Bank.
"Reducing gas flaring requires a global and concerted effort by
governments and industry, as well as financial institutions and local
communities," says Bent Svensson, manager of the Global Gas Flaring
Reduction partnership (GGFR). "Gas flaring reduction has been most
successful where there is country buy-in, high-level support and an
effective local partnership between government and industry."
The GGFR
partnership facilitates and supports national efforts to use the
associated gas and thus reduce flaring, by tackling the lack of
effective regulatory frameworks and the constraints on gas utilization,
such as insufficient infrastructure and poor access to local and
international energy markets, particularly in developing countries.
Links to further
information
World
Bank
Press Release, 23 April 2006
Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership (GGFR)
MARCH 2006
CANADA, IDB TO PROMOTE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND CARBON
FINANCE PROJECTS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
The
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) will provide
CAD$1,025,000 (approximately US$890,000) in untied technical assistance
resources to the Inter-American Development Bank for a joint work
programme to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon
finance projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. In order to expand
carbon finance in IDB-sponsored projects, the work programme will
provide resources for drafting up to twenty project idea notes required
by potential financers and purchasers of credits to gauge a projects
potential.
Link to further
information
IDB Press Release, 24 March 2006
FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT MEETING PREPARATIONS
UNDERWAY
Preparations are underway for the UN
Economic and Social Council's ninth Special High-Level Meeting with the
Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization and the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development. An advanced document is now
being circulated on the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus of the
International Conference on Financing for Development. The document
titled "Coherence, coordination and cooperation in the context of the
implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the 2005 World Summit
Outcome" includes an update on developments and activities implemented
as well as key questions to guide decisions on future action. The paper
is divided in four sections focusing on:
a) implementation of and support for national development
strategies, towards the achievement of the internationally agreed
development goals, including the MDGs;
b) fulfilling the development dimension of the Doha Work Programme:
Next steps, including in the area of "Aid for Trade;"
c) external Debt: Implementing and building on current initiatives
to enhance debt sustainability; and
d) supporting the development efforts of middle-income developing
countries.
The
Special High-Level meeting is being held at UN headquarters on 24 April.
Links to further
information
The
advanced unedited
document (27 March 2006)
The
Information Note to ECOSOC.
BUSINESS ALLIANCE TO PROMOTE ENERGY
SELF-SUFFICIENT BUILDINGS
The World
Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has formed an
alliance of global companies to promote the construction of energy
self-sufficient buildings. Participants will seek to determine how
buildings can be designed and constructed so that they use no energy
from external power grids, are carbon neutral, and can be built and
operated at fair market values.
Links to further
information
WBCSD News Releases, 29 March 2006
WBCSD News Releases, 30 March 2006
EUROPEAN ALLIANCE FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY ANNOUNCED
The European
Commission has launched a business-led alliance for corporate social
responsibility (CSR). The new alliance, which was announced on 22 March
2006, will promote actions including awareness raising campaigns and
best practice exchange, education and the integration of CSR into EU
policies. Environmentalists criticized the initiative, however, on the
grounds that it excludes non-business stakeholders.
Link to further
information
WBCSD News Release, 22 March 2006
IFC, FINANCIAL TIMES ANNOUNCE "BUSINESS AND
DEVELOPMENT" RESEARCH PRIZE
The International Finance Corporation, in collaboration with the
Financial Times newspaper, has announced its first annual research
paper competition for a first prize of US$30,000. The competition,
entitled "Business and Development: The Private Path to Prosperity,"
seeks to attract high quality research papers in an attempt to inject
fresh and innovative thinking into the ongoing dialogue about the role
of private sector in development. The deadline for submissions is 30
June 2006.
Link to further
information
IFC web site
EBRD INVITES INPUT ON ENERGY POLICY
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has prepared a
revised Energy Operations Policy. The draft Energy Operations Policy
document sets out the general, specific and operational role of the Bank
in the energy sector and establishes the overall framework for the
Bank's activities over the strategy period 2006-2010. It will succeed
the Energy Operations Policy approved by the Board on 21 March 2001, as
well as the Natural Resources Policy approved on 23 March 1999. Comments
are invited until 19 April 2006.
Links to further
information
Read the
draft Energy Operations Policy, March 2006
Submit
comments
US-COLOMBIA SIGN FTA
The US and
Colombia have announced the conclusion of a comprehensive bilateral free
trade agreement (FTA). The accord, which was announced on 27 February
2006, was signed after a final two-week round of negotiations in
Washington DC. The deal will lower tariffs and other barriers to trade
in goods and services; it also contains provisions on intellectual
property rights, the rights of foreign investors, and environmental
protection. The Colombia FTA appears to broadly resemble the accord with
Peru, down to a "side-letter" covering biodiversity issues.
Link to further
information
ICTSD-Bridges news report, 1 March 2006
US-PERU FREE TRADE AGREEMENT RECEIVES MIXED REVIEWS
The US
Congress has received mixed feedback from more than two dozen external
advisory committees on the US-Peru free trade agreement signed in
December 2005. The Trade and Environment Advisory Committee welcomed the
more restrictive definition of the term "indirect expropriation" to
reduce the likelihood that improved standards in environmental or health
regulations would be construed as "indirect expropriations" of a foreign
investor's property.
Links to further
information
IISD
Investment Treaty News, 2 March 2006
The
Advisory Group Reports
on the U.S.-Peru TPA
The
US-Peru FTA
"IP
Standards in the US-Peru FTA: Health and Environment;"(BRIDGES-ICTSD,
2006.)
Manuel
Ruiz, "The
Not-So-Bad US–Peru Side Letter on Biodiversity;" (BRIDGES-ICTSD,
2006.)
CARBON MARKET SEES RAPID GROWTH
The carbon market experienced "dramatic growth" in 2005, with over $11
billion in carbon traded last year, according to Point Carbon, the
consulting firm. The market was worth around $450 million in 2004. The
EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which started in January 2005, accounted
for much of the growth. However, the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development
Mechanism also enjoyed "massive growth." The news was released at the
same time as Point Carbon's annual conference, held from 28 February to
2 March 2006, in Copenhagen. The event attracted over 1000 participants,
focusing on trends with the Emissions Trading Scheme, Clean Development
Mechanism, Joint Implementation mechanism, and other elements of the
international carbon market.
Links to further
information
INSNET news report on the carbon market, 4 March 2006
Point Carbon 2006 conference website
FEBRUARY 2006
IFC ADOPTS NEW ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL STANDARDS
The
International Financial Corporation, part of the World Bank Group
dedicated to financing private sector investments, adopted new
environmental and social standards to finance private sector projects in
the developing world. A new policy on disclosure, adopted at the same
time, will increase transparency requirements.
Link to further information
IFC
press release, 21 February 2006
OVER US$650,000 AWARDED TO INNOVATIVE POVERTY
REDUCTION PROJECTS IN CHINA
The China
Development Marketplace, a new initiative of the World Bank to support
and strengthen grassroots civil society organizations in China, has
awarded over US$650,000 in grant funding to 30 projects focused on
reducing poverty through a range of innovative approaches, including
supplying environmentally sustainable biogas to single mothers in Hubei
province and creating support networks for waste collectors in Shenzhen
province.
Links to further information
World
Bank
press release, 24 February 2006
China Development Marketplace initiative, 24 February 2006
IADB APPROVES NEW ENVIRONMENT AND SAFEGUARDS
COMPLIANCE POLICY
The
Inter-American Development Bank has approved a new Environment and
Safeguards Compliance Policy. The new policy, which was agreed on 19
January 2006, updates the 1979 criteria to incorporate environmental
considerations across sectors safeguarding the environmental quality of
IADB operations. It includes rules on public consultations, impact
assessments, hazardous materials, pollution prevention and abatement,
and protection of cultural sites. It also requires the quantification
and monitoring of project's greenhouse gas emissions.
Links to further information
IADB statement,
3 February 2006
The
policy
JANUARY 2006
SOUTH ASIA TRADE PACT ENTERS INTO FORCE
The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) has entered into force. The new
regional trade pact became operational on 1 January 2006. Anwarul K.
Chowdhury, the UN's High Representative for least developed countries,
landlocked developing countries and small island states has praised the
treaty for its potential to help the region's poorest states.
However, recent media reports suggest that Pakistan may decide not to
ratify the treaty.
Links to further information
UN press release, 6 January 2006
Pakistan
likely to stay out of SAFTA, ANI/Yahoo news, 16 January 2006
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