UNFCCC Nationally Determined Contributions: Climate Change and Trade

Abstract

International rules on cross-border trade and investment are increasingly complex. There is the WTO, World Bank and UNCTAD, but also hundreds of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and free trade arrangements ranging from GSP, EU EPAs and COMESA to ASEAN, CAFTA and TPP. Each has its own negotiation, implementation and dispute settlement system. Everyone is affected but few have the time and resources to fully engage. TradeLab aims to empower countries and smaller stakeholders to reap the full development benefits of global trade and investment rules. Through pro bono legal clinics and practica, TradeLab connects students and experienced legal professionals to public officials especially in developing countries, small and medium-sized enterprises and civil society to build lasting legal capacity. Through 'learning by doing' we want to train and promote the next generation of trade and investment lawyers. By providing information and support on negotiations, compliance and litigation, we strive to make WTO, preferential trade and bilateral investment treaties work for everyone. More at: https://www.tradelab.org What are Legal ClinicsLegal Clinics are composed of small groups of highly qualified and carefully selected students. Faculty and other professionals with longstanding experience in the field act as Academic Supervisors and Mentors for the Clinics and closely supervise the work. Clinics are win-win for all involved: beneficiaries get expert work done for free and build capacity; students learn by doing, obtain academic credits and expand their network; faculty and expert mentors share their knowledge on cutting-edge issues and are able to attract or hire top students with proven skills. Clinic projects are selected on the basis of need, available resources and practical relevance. Two to four students are assigned to each project. Students are teamed up with expert mentors from law firms or other organizations and carefully prepped and supervised by Academic Supervisors and Teaching Assistants. Students benefit from skills and expert sessions, do detailed legal research and work on several drafts shared with supervisors, mentors and the beneficiary for comments and feedback. The Clinic culminates in a polished legal memorandum, brief, draft law or treaty text or other output tailored to the project's needs. Clinics deliver in three to four months. Work and output can be public or fully confidential, for example, when preparing legislative or treaty proposals or briefs in actual disputes. Centre for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI)CTEI is the Graduate Institute's Centre of Excellence for research on international trade. The Centre brings together the research activities of eminent professors of economics, law and political science in the areas of trade, economic integration and globalization. The Centre provides a forum for discussion and dialogue between the global research community, including the Institute's student body and research centres in the developing world, and the international business com...

Landfill reactions to society actions: The case of local and global air pollutants of Cerro Patacón in Panama

“…To reduce global environmental pressures, many DCs including Panama, ratified the Paris Agreement with an action plan based on a carbon pricing mechanism mostly applied to energy generation (Elkahwagy et al, 2017), but waste generation is often left aside because, contrary to energy, measurement mechanisms are rare. Climate change awareness is high but it works in a short life natural attention cycle difficult to engage with for long time because there are not sensible strategies for engagement (Spence et al, 2012).…”