United Nations Environment Programme UNEP

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United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP)

• Division of Technology, Industry and Economics
  (DTIE)Economics and Trade Unit (ETU)
• ECONOMICS AND TRADE PROGRAMME
• Briefing for Permanent Missions, Geneva,
• 2 October 2001

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Mission Statement

• Improve countries understanding of the
  interlinkages and complementarities between
  environment, trade and development
• Enhance capacities of countries to integrate
  environmental considerations into macroeconomic
  policies, including trade policies
• Promote and support the implementation of
  sustainable development policies by the financial
  services sector

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ETU Objectives

• Enhance the capacities of countries, particularly
  developing countries and countries with economies
  in transition, in integrating environmental
  considerations into macroeconomic policies
  including trade policies
• Strengthen coherence between Multilateral
  Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and WTO,
  including by developing synergies between their
  respective provisions
• Develop and assist countries in the use and
  application of assessment and incentive tools,
  and economic instruments
• Raise awareness of policy and decision makers
  about the relationship between trade, environment
  and development
• Identify and promote, via the UNEP Finance
  Initiatives (FI), best environmental policies and
  practices within the global finance sector, with
  specific outreach to financial institutions in
  the developing world and economies in transition.
  

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Enhance countries understanding of the
complementarities between trade, environment and
development

• A range of activities
• Economic instruments
• Integrated Assessment (reference manual and
  country projects)
• Strengthening coherence between MEAs and the WTO
• Ongoing policy analysis and dialogues
• UNEP-UNCTAD CBTF
• UNEP Finance Initiatives

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Tools for integrating environmental
considerations into trade policies

• Reference Manual on the Integrated Assessment
  Trade-Related Policies
• Country Projects on the impact of trade
  liberalization on the environment and designing
  policy responses
• Initiating work on application of these
  methodologies to the agricultural sector, in
  collaboration with the CBD

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Reference Manual for the Integrated Assessment
of Trade-Related Policies

• Provides a general approach to integrated
  assessment (published June 2001)
• Comprises a menu of options through which a user
  can develop assessment methodologies responding
  to countries needs and priorities
• The manual will assist policy makers and
  practitioners in assessing trade and
  trade-related policies against widely accepted
  sustainable development criteria
• Already informing country projects and applicable
  in CBTF context

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UNEP Country Projectson trade liberalisation

• Projects focus on assessment of environmental and
  developmental impacts of trade policies in
  specific sectors and the identification of policy
  responses, including economic instruments
• Argentina fisheries China cotton Ecuador
  bananas Nigeria cocoa and rubber Senegal
  fisheries Tanzania forestry
• To complete by end of 2001 synthesis report of
  main results available in Doha
• In selected countries will move into a second
  phase of design and implementation of policy
  packages to maximise net development gains, in
  2002
• All have capacity-building elements.

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Strengthen Coherence between MEAs and the WTO

• Activities
• Facilitate a process for continuous dialogue
  between governments, MEAs and the WTO (five
  meetings to date)
• Develop synergies between MEA and WTO provisions,
  to enhance mutual supportiveness
• Sythesis of analysis and discussions to be
  published before Doha
• Potential foci include joint capacity-building,
  assessment to enhance implementation of MEAs,
  technology transfer and use of economic
  instruments.

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Develop and assist countries in the use of
economic instruments

• Working group on Economic Instruments (formed
  June 2001)
• terms of reference
• collation and analysis of existing work
• Country Projects on design and implementation of
  economic instruments
• Subsidies
• Feb. 2001 workshop on fisheries subsidies
• publication of UNEP paper
• further case studies and workshop in early 2002

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Ongoing policy analysis and dialogues

• The Precautionary Approach
• revising the paper to accommodate comments
• internal circulation within UNEP (October 2001)
• IPRs and the Environment
• preliminary analysis of the inter-relationships
• experts meeting to discuss that analysis (late
  2001)

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Fourth WTO Ministerial Meeting

• UNEPs contribution and input in the Ministerial
  meeting
• Advertising UNEPs capacity-building activities
  on trade, environment and development at
  national, regional and international levels (in
  collaboration with UNCTAD)
• The value of assessments for developing mutually
  supportive trade and environment policies and
  maximizing the net development gains of trade and
  trade liberalization
• Informal discussions between ministers on these
  and related issues.

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UNEP Finance Initiatives

• Conceived at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, UNEP FI
  has grown from from 6 banks to some 275 financial
  institutions by 2001.
• There are two UNEP FI statements of commitment
  one each for the banking and insurance sectors. A
  company joins UNEP FI by signing one of these
  statements.
• UNEP FI builds the case for banks, insurers and
  asset managers to become sustainability leaders.

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UNEP Finance Initiatives

• UNEP FI has new 2001-2002 work programme
  deliverables include
• Finance sector report for World Summit for
  Sustainable Development the Rio 10 meeting -
  in South Africa in 2002 plus a joint project with
  the World Bank to explore Innovative Financing
  for Sustainability.
• 5 regional conferences - Asia-Pacific, Latin
  America, Africa, Economies in Transition and Gulf
  States by June 2002. UNEP FIs regional task
  forces will be relaunched.
• In April 2001 UNEP FI launched the development of
  Sustainability Performance Professional
  Development (SPDP) programmes.
• Three specialist working groups on Asset
  Management, Climate Change and Environmental
  Management and Reporting.

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Economics and Trade Unit

• Address
• Economics and Trade Unit
• Division of Technology Industry and Economics
• 15 Chemin des Anemones
• CH - 1219 Chatelaine
• Geneva
• Tel [phone] 81 79
• Fax[phone]
• E-mail etu_at_unep.ch
• Visit our website www.unep.ch/etu