Environmental Law, Policy and Governance Program

• Home
• Goal
• Mission-Framework
• Mandates
• Ministerial Meetings

Past Projects

• Environmental Assessments and Capacity Building for Trade Liberalization in the Americas
• Trade and Environment in the Americas Project
• Caribbean Emergency Legislation Project
• Cleaner Production
• Human Rights and Environment

Resources

• Publications
• FIDA Network
• Gender
• Public Participation
• Courses
• Media Center
• Environmental Law Advisory Group
• Green Initiatives

Module 1: Intersection Between Trade and Environment

Objective: To describe areas of intersection between trade and environment.

Overview: This module will explore the physical and economic relationship between trade and environment. In particular, it will focus on trends associated with increased trade activity and its impacts on environment and development.  This analysis will show that there is a pressing need to balance trade and environmental goals in order to achieve sustainable development.

Lecturers: Rodrigo Martínez , Andrés Sánchez

Topics covered in this module include

• International trade

o Rationales for trade promotion

• Environmental conditions

            o Costs of environmental degradation

            o Rationale for sound environmental management

• Physical and economic relationship between environment and international trade

o  Overview of the relationship and impacts

o  Methodologies to assess impacts

o  Product effects

o  Scale effects

o  Structural effects

o  Direct effects

• Introduction and Case Study on Water Supply & Sanitation and Free Trade Agreements

Required Readings:

• Recent Trade Developments and Selected Trends in Trade, World Trade Report 2006: Exploring the link between subsidies, trade, and the WTO, World Trade Organization (2006), Chapter I, pp.1-12.

• Summary for Decision-Makers, Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis, a part of the series: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005, World Resources Institute (2005), Chapter I, pp.1-24.

• Physical and Economic Linkages, Environment and Trade - a Hand Book, 2nd ed., United Nations Environment Programme and International Institute for Sustainable Development (2005), Chapter 4, pp. 45-50.

• The Effects of Trade Liberalization on the Environment, Trade and Environment at the WTO, The World Trade Organization (2004), pp. 22-34.

• Hoffmann, Ulrich and Tom Rotherman. Environmental Requirements and Market Access for Developing Countries: Promoting Environmental – Not Trade – Protection, Trade and Environment Review 2006. United Nations Conference for Trade and Environment (2006), Chapter 1, pp. 1-12.

• Esty, Daniel C.  Bridging the Trade-Environment Divide, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 3, Number 1 (Summer 2001), pp. 113-1301

• World Trade Report 2014 Trade and development: recent trends and the role of the WTO. Read only Executive Summary pg. 5 – 15.

• Trade and Green Economy A HANDBOOK Third Edition. 2014. The United Nations Environment Programme and The International Institute for Sustainable Development. Read Chapter 1 and 2.

• Fact Sheet, Global Environmental Outlook – 3, United Nations Environment Programme (2003).

• Analyzing the Linkages between Economic Integration and Sustainable Development in the Americas.

• Requisitos Ambientales, Competitividad Internacional y Acceso a Mercados en América Central, Cuba y la República Domínicana, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2007).

• Schneider, Andreas and David Kernohan.  The Effects of Trade on Agriculture in Smaller Developing Countries, Centre for European Policy Studies, CEPS Working Document No. 244 (June 2006).

• The Tragedy of the Commons. Garrett Hardin, Science, 162 (1968). 

• Summary for Decision-Makers, Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis, a part of the series: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005, World Resources Institute (2005), Chapter I, pp.1-24.n. 

• The Role of Ecosystems in Developing a Sustainable “Green Economy”. UNEP Policy Series. Ecosystem Management. Policy Brief 2 – 2010.