Greening the World Trade Organization
by Raymond Saner
Environmental and Climate Change Economics

The research programme on “Climate Change and Sustainable Development” addresses the two inter-related issues of climate change and sustainable development and a corollary of key topics in the field of environmental economics. The programme builds upon over twenty years of successful FEEM research in the field. In the specific area of climate change, FEEM has achieved a leading position in the international research community, as a result of the in-house development and application of several methodologies for the economic analysis of climate and energy policies. FEEM models address world-wide vulnerability to changes in climatic conditions, and investigate the economics of mitigation and adaptation to these changes. In the specific area of sustainable development, FEEM research covers a variety of issues: sustainable management of natural resources, the economics of natural hazards and extreme events, and the use of indicators to measure sustainability and growth beyond GDP. FEEM can also rely on a strong research team of applied economists who investigate the economic performance of various environmental and climate policy instruments. The twofold goal of this research programme is to contribute to science while guiding policies and informing the public debate.

Raymond Saner and Lichia Yiu, 2017, Matlin S. & Kickbusch, I. (eds.) “Pathways to Global Health: Case Studies in Global Health Diplomacy (Volume 2)”, Global Health Diplomacy, vol. 5, p.171-210.

The goal of this chapter is to describe and analyse the multi-stakeholder negotiation process which unfolded during the negotiation of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco (FCTC), including the influencing and negotiation behaviour of the different stakeholder groups and how their disputes resulted in the completion of the FCTC, the initiation of negotiations and agreement on a protocol for FCTC Article 15 (the illicit trade in tobacco products), and the unfinished negotiations towards a protocol for FCTC Article 13 (tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship).

Conventional definitions of diplomacy previously reserved for state actors increasingly apply to non-state actors such as non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, and international organisations. Development policy and intervention in the form of development aid has been reserved in the past to interactions between state actors such donor countries (developed countries) and beneficiary countries (developing or transition countries). While non-governmental organisations have always been active in the field of development aid as providers of services, they have not openly become political actors in the development policy field until recently.

This article describes in detail the application of development diplomacy in the context of international co-operation for poverty reduction in Highly Indebted Poor Countries. In particular, the authors describe the goal of the International Labour Organisation--a non-state actor--in advocating the inclusion of employment and Decent Work Agenda policies in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, an instrument developed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In order to achieve such inclusion, the International Labour Organisation mandated CSEND to create an advocacy based guidebook and negotiations simulation in order to influence future Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper negotiations.