Addressing the Systemic Risks of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) to Climate Action
Informal Note, 5 June 2026
By Daniel Uribe Terán, Lead Programme Officer, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Programme, South Centre
The current international investment agreement (IIA) framework, featuring over 2,200 treaties with Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms, acts as a structural barrier to the implementation of key aspects of the Paris Agreement. By protecting fossil fuel investments, those treaties create significant financial risks that may induce “regulatory chill,” deterring states from implementing necessary climate mitigation measures. Recent rulings from the International Court of Justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the European Court of Human Rights have affirmed states’ sovereign rights to regulate for climate action, providing new legal tools to challenge the ISDS status quo. However, these judicial developments do not eliminate litigation risks or guarantee favourable outcomes. Consequently, states must pursue systemic reform, including treaty modernisation, the termination of outdated IIAs, the implementation of comprehensive climate carve-outs, and restrictions on forward-looking damages. Addressing these legal barriers at upcoming forums like the 64th sessions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Bodies (SB 64) is essential to align international investment law with the existential imperative of a low-emission transition.
Charting Green Industrial Futures: Advancing Global South Cooperation for a Just Transition
By Danish
Accelerating green industrialisation is essential for Global South countries to align their national climate action with job creation, economic growth and sustainable development. However, they face persistent barriers in access to finance, clean technologies, and policy space needed to implement green industrial policies. This policy brief argues that these constraints can be effectively addressed by developing countries through expanding their international cooperation in climate, trade and industry. Through the analysis of three institutional mechanisms emerging from the Global South – the Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII), the International Solar Alliance (ISA), and the Integrated Forum on Climate Change and Trade (IFCCT), the brief highlights some ways for developing countries to shape their own green industrial futures and advance a just transition.
The sixty-fourth sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SB64), Belém indicators, plastic treaty and Santa Marta outcomes
Informal Note, 5 June 2026
By Daniel Uribe Terán, Lead Programme Officer, and Touba Esfahani Nejad, Intern, of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Programme (SDCC) at the South Centre
The Belém Adaptation Indicators agreed at COP30 to make adaptation more measurable. While the measurement of the adaptation efforts is a step forward, it is not sufficient. The indicators can be used for comparison and surveillance. However, the adaptation objective of the Paris Agreement is to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability of persons and of vulnerable ecosystems that are critical for the maintenance of forest ecosystems and the provision of forest ecosystem services. To achieve these objectives, it is necessary to take effective action to provide finance, technology transfer, debt relief and capacity-building. In SB64, developing countries will have the opportunity to discuss what is the role of reporting while support for implementing adaptation measures are missing.
The Digital Trade Data Heist: Trade Agreement Limits on Data Transfer and Storage Regulation Could Undercut Data Governance
By Daniel Rangel, Jai Vipra, and Lori Wallach
Governments worldwide are increasingly regulating how data is collected, transferred and stored to advance public interest objectives, including privacy, national security, taxation of the digital economy, and competition in the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) field. However, recent “digital trade” rules in international agreements — particularly those modeled on the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) — restrict governments’ ability to regulate cross-border data flows or to require local data storage. This paper analyzes the expanding divergence between domestic data-governance measures and binding trade commitments. It evaluates three major models of digital trade rules (USMCA, Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur), and European Union–New Zealand) and demonstrates that the USMCA framework imposes the most sweeping constraints and the weakest exceptions. The analysis also shows that such trade rules may hinder broader regulatory efforts related to taxation and AI accountability.
Meeting the 2030 Target on Reducing the Global Burden of AMR: Pathways for Strengthening and Leveraging Surveillance in Developing Countries
By Prateek Sharma and Viviana Munoz Tellez
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) poses a major and growing threat to global health, yet low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face significant challenges in implementing AMR surveillance –collection and analysis of data on AMR. Global AMR targets, including the United Nations’ goal of reducing AMR-associated deaths by 10 percent by 2030 and achieving diagnostic capacity in 80 percent of countries, rely on surveillance data that are often incomplete, hospital-centered, and unrepresentative of community infections in LMICs. While the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) of the World Health Organization (WHO) provides a standardized framework, in LMICs limited access to diagnostics, high laboratory costs, and reliance on data from specialized hospitals constrain participation and data comparability. Modeling studies have helped quantify the global burden of AMR, yet their reliance on sparse LMIC data underscores the need for improved primary surveillance. Achieving the United Nations’ 2030 target—where 80 per cent of countries can test resistance in all GLASS pathogens—will require substantial investment, technical support, and sustained political commitment. Embedding AMR surveillance within health systems and strengthening pandemic prevention and preparedness can help unlock external funding for eligible LMICs through the Pandemic Fund and the Global Fund.
Leading Global Artificial Intelligence Governance from Outcomes to Impact
By Aishwarya Narayanan and Danish
The proliferation of high-level events on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years has contributed to a global AI governance framework that marginalises many developing countries’ priorities. The India-AI Impact Summit, as the first AI summit of its kind to be held in the Global South, has shown how the views, needs and concerns of the developing and least developed nations can be placed at the heart of the global AI agenda.
Through the lens of the India-AI Impact Summit, this policy brief underscores the need to build synergies between AI summit outcomes, UN-based discussions and multistakeholder initiatives. It posits how coherence among these diverse processes can be advanced through the work of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and the Global Dialogue on AI Governance under the UN. The brief concludes with recommendations for building greater convergence on global AI governance that supports sustainable development in the Global South.
No Country Can Cruise Past Collective Responsibility: The Hantavirus Outbreak
By Dr. Viviana Munoz Tellez
The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius is a vivid reminder of why global health cooperation matters. It is one of many simultaneous outbreaks WHO is responding to, at a time the broader architecture of global health is under growing strain. The WHO faces deep funding shortfalls as some governments retreat from multilateralism. Despite International Health Regulations strengthened in response to COVID-19 and a newly adopted Pandemic Agreement, the system for pathogen access and benefit sharing that it must contain remains unfinished. Every country’s health security depends on global collaboration and solidarity.
Input for the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee
Study on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence Systems on Good Governance
South Centre
May 2026
The South Centre has submitted technical input to the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee regarding AI systems and governance. The submission analyses the integration of AI through the framework of Rule of Law principles: effectiveness, accountability, and inclusiveness.
Three Decades of Global Engagement: The South Centre’s Contribution to Intellectual Property and Development
By Nirmalya Syam
South Centre 30th Anniversary Series No. 2, 30 April 2026
This paper is part of a series of publications made in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the South Centre, an intergovernmental organization established in 1995 to advance the interests of developing countries in global governance. Tracing its origins to the 1990 South Commission, it examines the Centre’s pivotal role in shaping intellectual property (IP) policies to promote equitable development. Through rigorous research, advocacy, and technical assistance, the South Centre has supported negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and World Trade Organization (WTO), influencing milestones like the 2007 WIPO Development Agenda and extensions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) transition periods for least developed countries.
Key contributions include promoting TRIPS flexibilities for public health, biodiversity, and technology transfer, with seminal publications on compulsory licensing, patent examination, and traditional knowledge protection. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre advocated for IP waivers to enhance access to vaccines and therapeutics. Impacts include empowering Global South nations to implement development-oriented IP strategies and reform patent laws. Looking ahead, the paper addresses challenges from digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), and data governance, calling for strengthened South-South cooperation and proactive advocacy to ensure inclusive IP frameworks. The South Centre remains essential for fostering sustainable development and reducing global inequalities.
UK–India CETA: Patents and International Intellectual Property Governance
By Pratyush Nath Upreti & Virender Chandel
This policy brief locates the United Kingdom-India Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement’s (CETA) intellectual property rights (IPRs) rules in the midst of trade-offs. It succinctly provides an overview of the IPR Chapter, analyses the specific provisions on patents and contextualises IP in the broader context of international IP governance. The analysis of the IPR Chapter shows the parties’ objective to establish meaningful commitments on intellectual property protection and enforcement while preserving regulatory flexibility on development-centric and public health priorities. All in all, the IPR Chapter reflects a compromise between a country with an established, strong IP regime and a country seeking greater policy space and advancing IP norms in areas such as traditional knowledge. As India continues integrating into the global trade architecture through bilateral agreements, the CETA IPR Chapter will serve as a critical test case for whether strategic policy space can be meaningfully preserved within contemporary trade frameworks.
Evidence of Partnerships in the Cuban Pharmaceutical Sector
By Graziela Ferrero Zucoloto
This article analyzes the pharmaceutical partnership agreements of Cuban institutions. It identifies various partnerships with national and foreign firms that spanned 17 countries, with several developed nations appearing as recipients of Cuban technologies, and with Cuban institutions acting as the primary technology holder and licensor in the majority of agreements identified. These findings suggest that Cuba’s state-directed pharmaceutical model has produced an active, innovation-generating sector, with potential lessons for other countries, including Brazil, that maintain public pharmaceutical laboratories.
The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels: Reclaiming Multilateralism for a Just Transition
Informal Note, 28 April 2026
By Daniel Uribe Terán
The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, serves as a necessary platform for reclaiming multilateralism for a just transition. This paper analyses how the conference addresses the ‘judicialization’ of climate obligations following landmark 2025 advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). It highlights critical barriers facing developing countries, specifically the ‘regulatory chill’ caused by Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms and the ‘debt-fossil fuel trap’ that binds extractive economies to external risks. It also recognises that integrating the ‘People’s Summit’ outcomes into the official Conference could promote a reparative financial model and strengthen the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Ultimately, Santa Marta should provide a blueprint for systemic reform, ensuring that global decarbonisation respects resource sovereignty and human dignity while moving toward a coordinated, legally backed effort for collective survival.
