Indonesia’s Perspective on Review of International Investment Agreements
The South Centre releases a new policy brief series focusing on international investment agreements and experiences of developing countries.
As part of this series, the publication of Investment Policy Brief No. 1 entitled by Mr. Abdulkadir Jailani briefly describes Indonesia’s experience with at least six investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) cases. It also explains Indonesia’s decision to discontinue its existing international investment agreements (IIAs); to date, 17 out of 64 IIAs have been discontinued by Indonesia. The paper explains the rationale for this important policy measure. (more…)
The Nagoya Protocol: Main Characteristics, Challenges and Opportunities
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity entered into force in October 2014. Its provisions clearly reflect the need for countries to set up access and benefit sharing rules and procedures for the Protocol’s implementation at the national level. (more…)
Policy Brief on Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCS)
Part A: Introduction: The issue of ‘intended nationally determined contributions’ (INDCs) has come to be one of the important components of the process towards the UNFCCC’s 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to be held in Paris in December 2015. Countries have been in the process of preparing their INDCs. This Paper is intended to provide the background information on the INDCs, and a guide to developing countries on how to formulate their INDCs. (more…)
Towards a More Coherent International Legal System on Farmers’ Rights: The Relationship of the FAO ITPGRFA, UPOV and WIPO
This Policy Brief outlines some key areas of interrelation among the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). (more…)
Understanding the Lima Climate Conference : A Proxy Battle for the 2015 Paris Agreement
I: Reaching agreement on the Lima outcome, after a near collapse
The annual United Nations climate conference, held in Lima, ended early on Sunday morning 14 December 2014 after over two weeks of intense negotiations and the trauma of an almost total collapse of this round of talks that was supposed to be an important step towards a new climate change agreement scheduled to be adopted in Paris in December 2015. (more…)
Climate Change, Technology and Intellectual Property Rights: Context and Recent Negotiations
I. Technology Transfer, Sustainable Development and Climate Change
In order to meet their objectives for mitigation and adaptation in climate change, and move more towards a sustainable development pathway, developing countries need access to environmentally-sound technology at affordable prices. (more…)
Resolving Debt Crises: How a Debt Resolution Mechanism Would Work
The issue of foreign debt has made a major comeback. This is due to the crisis in Europe, in which many countries had to seek big bailouts to keep them from defaulting on their loan payments.
Before this, debt crises have been associated with African and Latin American countries. In 1997-99, three East Asian countries also joined the indebted countries’ club. (more…)
Loss and Damage Mechanism Set Up for Climate Change
The UN Climate Conference held in Warsaw has set up a new international mechanism to help developing countries affected by loss and damage from climate change, such as the Philippines typhoon. (more…)
Developing the loss and damage mechanism in climate change: The tasks ahead
The establishment of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with climate change impacts (the Mechanism) stands out as one of the key outcomes and milestones of the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Warsaw in November 2013. This brief offers our views, as negotiators from developing countries, who have worked on this issue in the past few years. (more…)
Integrating a Gender Perspective in Climate Change, Development Policy and the UNFCCC
This policy brief discusses the opportunities, challenges and constraints for integrating a gender perspective into global climate change policy as well as the current effort of gender mainstreaming in the UNFCCC. The brief is a companion piece to a previous note that explored the nature, content and implications of the Gender Decision made at COP 18, Doha, 2012. (more…)
Climate Change Financing Requirements of Developing Countries
1. Introduction
This paper surveys the existing literature on the climate change financing requirements of developing countries in the two UNFCCC categories of mitigation and adaptation. The reported estimates are based on the current state of play in estimation exercises. (more…)
This overview outlines in summary form the main results of the negotiations during the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) and the 8th COP Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP8) that took place in Doha, Qatar, from 27 November to 8 December 2012.
