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Taking Advantage of ASEAN's Free Trade Agreements: A guide for small and medium-sized enterprises
This document consists of two distinct parts: a guide intended to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) leverage the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreements to expand markets and promote regional growth, and a critical commentary on the United Kingdom's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), highlighting potential threats to public health.
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Document type: Guide
Governance and Accountability Policy Innovations: Advancing China’s green finance
This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development analyzes policy failures in the governance, accountability, and transparency of financial market actors and proposes policy innovations to advance green finance, specifically focusing on how China can adopt these measures to green its financial markets.
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Document type: Report
The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report What’s in it for Latin America?
This executive summary adapts the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report for Latin American decision-makers. It details observed warming (0.7–1°C since the 1970s) and shifting rainfall patterns that threaten water availability and food production. The report emphasizes that further warming is inevitable and highlights the need for integrated adaptation and mitigation strategies, such as sustainable urban planning and payment for ecosystem services. It concludes that international cooperation and financial support from developed countries are critical for the region to build resilience and pursue low-carbon development.
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Document type: Executive summary
International negotiations and National climate change legislation
This fact sheet explores the relationship between national climate change legislation and a country's position and ambition within international climate negotiations, specifically within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Position sur REDD (Réduction des émissions dues à la déforestation et à la dégradation des forêts)
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) expresses its formal opposition to the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) system, arguing that it commodifies forests, violates the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities, and allows industrialized nations to avoid reducing fossil fuel emissions through flawed carbon offsetting mechanisms.
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Document type: Statement
Friends of the Earth International Position on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation)
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) declares a 'NO REDD' position, opposing all forms of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) schemes, whether market-based or publicly funded. The organization argues that REDD commodifies forests, undermines the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and fails to address the structural causes of climate change by allowing industrialized nations to avoid direct emissions reductions through the use of carbon offsets.
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Document type: Statement
A guide to the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM)
This guide describes the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM), a flexible framework designed to help countries identify and analyze forest landscape restoration (FLR) potential at national or sub-national levels. Developed by the IUCN and WRI, ROAM combines stakeholder engagement ("best knowledge") with data analysis ("best science") to provide analytical inputs for national policies, such as REDD+ strategies and biodiversity action plans.
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Document type: Guide
China’s reforms, the global trading system and South Africa’s trade strategy
This research paper examines the geopolitical and economic implications of US-led 'mega-regional' trade agreements—the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)—and China's domestic economic reforms. The author argues that South Africa's current inward-looking trade strategy risks undermining its international competitiveness and regional leadership as the global trading system evolves.
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Document type: Research paper
Government of Mexico Introduces Latin America’s First-Ever Fuel-Efficiency Standard for Light Duty Vehicles
A case study detailing the implementation of Mexico's first fuel-efficiency standard for light-duty vehicles in June 2013, developed with support from EMBARQ Mexico and Centro Mario Molina.
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Document type: Case study
Land and environmental rights defenders in danger: an overview of recent cases
This report by the Center for International Environmental Law provides an overview of cases from 2013 involving the harassment, criminalization, and killing of land and environmental rights defenders globally. It highlights the systemic risks faced by individuals opposing extractive industries, large-scale development projects, and land grabbing, noting that these defenders are often targeted by both state forces and non-state actors, including corporations.
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Document type: Report
The Dark Side of Foreign Direct Investment: A South African Perspective
This research paper examines the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and net investment income on South Africa's current account deficit. It argues that while FDI is beneficial for growth, the trend of transnational companies prioritizing short-term shareholder value over long-term reinvestment creates economic vulnerabilities, particularly during downturns. The author recommends policy shifts to attract FDI that is labour-absorbing, export-oriented, and focused on reinvesting profits within the domestic economy.
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Document type: Research paper
Supporting international climate negotiators: a monitoring and evaluation framework
This research paper describes a tailored monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework developed by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) to assess its Negotiations Support programme. The programme provides legal and technical assistance to negotiators from the poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries to increase their influence in international climate change negotiations.
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Document type: Research paper
The Green Economy in the G-20, Post-Mexico: Implications for China
This research paper examines China's approach to the green economy and its interaction with the G-20, specifically following the 2012 Los Cabos Summit in Mexico. The author argues that while China is domestically committed to greening its economic development due to severe environmental degradation, it remains reluctant to accept mandatory international obligations that might hinder its economic growth. The paper highlights a disconnect between China's internal policy terminology and the 'inclusive green growth' framework promoted at the G-20, suggesting that China's organizational structure for G-20 participation further marginalizes environmental policy.
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Document type: Research paper
The Green Economy in the G-20, Post-Mexico: Implications for Brazil
This research paper examines the tension between the 'green growth' agenda promoted by Mexico and the 'sustainable development' concept advocated by Brazil during the 2012 G-20 summit. It analyzes how Brazil's domestic industrial and energy policies often conflict with green economy goals due to a preference for autonomous industrialization and short-term economic growth, while also assessing Brazil's diplomatic coordination with other BRICS nations on climate issues.
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Document type: Research paper
Statement of Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
This statement by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance on October 30, 2013, argues that the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) could undermine public health and environmental protections, particularly regarding toxic chemicals. CIEL warns that mechanisms like regulatory harmonization, mutual recognition, and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) may lower safety standards to a 'lowest-common denominator' and chill the development of more protective laws in the U.S., EU, and globally.
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Document type: Statement
SUBMISSION OF CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (CIEL) ON BEHALF OF CIEL, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, SIERRA CLUB AND CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY BEFORE THE U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE HEARING ON THE TRANSATLANTIC TRADE AND INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP: ACHIEVING THE POTENTIAL
This statement by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), submitted on behalf of itself, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, and Center for Biological Diversity, warns that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) could undermine public health and environmental protections, particularly regarding toxic chemicals. The document argues that the pursuit of 'regulatory coherence' through harmonization and mutual recognition may lower standards to a 'lowest-common denominator,' preempt sub-national laws, and create chilling effects on the development of safety regulations globally.
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Document type: Statement
Towards an integrated assessment of water security under global change in the Americas
This fact sheet describes an initiative by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research to strengthen adaptive management capacity and water security in the arid Americas through science-policy dialogues and integrated assessments of surface and groundwater use.
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Document type: Fact sheet
National climate change legislation: The key to more ambitious international agreements?
This report by Terry Townshend and Adam Matthews argues that ambitious domestic climate change legislation, specifically targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enables countries to champion more ambitious collective action within the UNFCCC international negotiations.
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Document type: Report
STATEMENT OF CARROLL MUFFETT PRESIDENT AND CEO CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (CIEL) ON BEHALF OF CIEL, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH AND SIERRA CLUB BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE SUB-COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, MANUFACTURING AND TRADE HEARING ON THE U.S. – E.U. FREE TRADE AGREEMENT: TIPPING OVER THE REGULATORY BARRIERS
Carroll Muffett, President and CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 24, 2013, regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The statement argues that TTIP could undermine public health and environmental protections, particularly in the chemicals sector, by prioritizing the removal of regulatory barriers over safety standards. Muffett advocates for the retention of national rights to determine health protection levels and the exclusion of investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms.
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Document type: Statement
STATEMENT OF CARROLL MUFFETT PRESIDENT AND CEO CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (CIEL) ON BEHALF OF CIEL, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH AND SIERRA CLUB BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE SUB-COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, MANUFACTURING AND TRADE HEARING ON THE U.S. – E.U. FREE TRADE AGREEMENT: TIPPING OVER THE REGULATORY BARRIERS
Carroll Muffett, President and CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 24, 2013, regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Representing CIEL, Friends of the Earth, and the Sierra Club, Muffett argued that the agreement's focus on reducing regulatory barriers could undermine public health and environmental protections, particularly in the chemicals sector, by favoring industry interests over safety standards.
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Document type: Statement