Sustainable Development

SouthViews No. 20, 18 July 2012

Sustainable Development as an Answer to Economic and Financial Crises

Below is the speech delivered by Dr Yilmaz Akyüz, Chief Economist of the South Centre on the Sustainable Development Dialogue Roundtable on the Global Financial Crisis, UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012, in Rio de Janeiro on 16 June 2012. (more…)

SouthViews No. 19, 17 July 2012

The Rio+20 Summit and its Follow Up

By Martin Khor

The Rio+20 summit from 13 to 22 June was disappointing to many, but it could still succeed through the mandated follow-up actions. The South Centre’s Executive Director gives an in-depth assessment.

(more…)

Policy Brief 9, November 2011

Proposals on the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development (IFSD).

Twenty years after the Rio Summit 1992, the global sustainable development situation has deteriorated. The environment crisis has worsened. After a period of good development performances in some developing countries, the prospects for the global economy have worsened, with the financial-economic crisis now affecting Europe and the US, which has implications for developing countries. (more…)

Policy Brief 6, August 2011

The Foundations and Basis Of “Sustainable Development”.

The main framework of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) 1992, its related agreements (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) and its follow-up processes is to place the environment together with development in a single context. (more…)

Research Paper 40, July 2011

Risks and Uses of the Green Economy Concept in the Context of Sustainable Development, Poverty and Equity.

There are many challenges and obstacles facing developing countries in moving their economies to more environmentally friendly paths. On one hand this should not prevent the attempt to urgently incorporate environmental elements into economic development. (more…)

Research Paper 34, November 2010

Addressing Climate Change through Sustainable Development and the Promotion of Human Rights.

This Research Paper sets out the relevance of international human rights obligations in light of the multiple constraints climate change poses to the sustainable development of developing countries. (more…)

Paper on Carbon-Based Competitiveness, Trade and Climate Change, October 2009

Carbon-Based Competitiveness, Trade and Climate Change: Perspectives of Developing Countries.

This paper analyses a number of issues raised by the increasing links between the global trade and climate agendas such as tariff liberalisation on green technologies, the use of low carbon standards, intellectual property rights and border adjustment measures. The paper examines these issues from the perspectives of developing countries focusing on the political and economic considerations that underlie them. (more…)

Analytical Note, September 2008

Sustainable development in the context of climate change: overriding priority of the South.

This Analytical Note stresses that both sustainable development and climate change are interlinked. Climate change will have impacts on the pace and progress of developing countries’ efforts to achieve sustainable development objectives, while achieving such objectives form the fundamental premise upon which developing countries are undertaking their actions to address climate change. (more…)

Analytical Note, August 2005

Policy Challenges for Developing Countries in Large Scale Mining.

Many developing countries are rich in natural resources and in particular mineral commodities. (more…)

Analytical Note, June 2003

Reflecting Sustainable Development in the Doha Trade Negotiations: Implementing Paragraph 51 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration.

Paragraph 51 of the 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration provides a unique but ambiguous mandate for the WTO’s Committees on Trade and Development (CTD) and on Trade and Environment (CTE). (more…)