This blog shares knowledge and ideas on key issues in the trade and environment field. It covers issues like climate change, biodiversity and the impact of trade on environment and development outcomes. It will also share experience from the field where ITC and partners are active in supporting countries to follow green development paths. The blog is mostly written and edited by Alexander Kasterine, Head, Trade and Environment Programme, with occasional contribution from members of the Programme team. You can also follow Alex on Twitter.

The blog is a personal reflection by the authors. It is intended to provoke debate and conversations about development and does not necessarily reflect the policies of ITC.

The pet trade in the Year of the Snake

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 02 April 2013

According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. However this is not a cause of celebration for the growing business of exotic pet trade. According to new research, the trade is largely associated with illegal practices, high levels of mortality during transportation and little compensation for the hunters collecting the animals in the forests. Is there anything that can be done to improve these opaque supply chains? Read more

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Climate change threatens achievement of zero-poverty goals

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 22 March 2013

Zero poverty is achievable by 2030 years according to Bono in a recent TED talk. UNDP has just published its 2013 Human Development Report. It charts the rapid progress in reducing poverty but does not make predictions as to when poverty will be eradicated. Instead the report points to areas to facilitate continued “momentum” in development progress... Read more

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What is the market for environmental goods and services in Africa?

By Hanna Bucher
Posted on, 20 March 2013

Environmental concerns are driving global demand for a wide range of Environmental Goods and Services (EGS). The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) has estimated that global spending on EGS could rise from USD 584 billion in 2004 to as high as USD 1902 billion by 2020. The size of the EGS industry today has already been compared to the aerospace and pharmaceutical sectors... Read more

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Trade in the world's most expensive fibre- the vicuña

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 9 March 2013

The wool of the vicuña, a camelid (llama type animal) living at 4000 metres in the Andes is the finest natural fibre in the world. Produced in small quantities, it is used by the luxury end of the fashion industry. ITC is working with several partners including TRAFFIC and IUCN in analysing how to raise the incomes of the indigenous people who look after the vicuña..Read more

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Bolivian strategy on climate change

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 1 March 2013

A visit to the Graduate Institute in Geneva is usually an interesting way to spend a couple of hours after work, and this Tuesday was no exception, with Rene Orellana, Ambassador and Chief Negotiator of the Plurinational State of Bolivia at the UNFCCC speaking about his country’s vision for post-2015 sustainable development goals and its climate change policy.. Read more

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Get out of deforestation to protect your brand!

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 25 February 2013

Deforestation is bad news for many reasons including destroying local livelihoods and removing habitats for wildlife. Forests also absorb and store carbon in trees and soil and when cleared or disturbed, this carbon is released as greenhouse gases. Around 17% of global emissions come from deforestation... Read more

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Pricing Aviation emissions – bad for developing country exports?

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 22 February 2013

The world’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions is aviation. In order to mitigate these emissions, the EU is proposing to include foreign airlines in its cap and trade scheme known as the Emission Trading System (ETS). Launched in 2005, the EU ETS is the largest global emission trading scheme and is a major pillar of EU climate change policy... Read more

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“Scaling up” from niche markets – is it possible?

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 15 February 2013 

I just read a summary of a PhD thesis by Linda Kleemann studying development economics at Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Linda looked a panel data on farmers adopting organic pineapple production and certification in Ghana. After three years of studying farm adoption patterns, she concluded the following...Read more
 
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Quinoa trade: good or bad for food security in the Andes?

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 29 January 2013
 
Farming communities in the Andean Altiplano have been producing the grain quinoa for local consumption for centuries. When foodies in high income countries got wind of its unique nutritional properties, such as the high levels of protein, demand for the traditional grain soured.. Read more

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The Resource Curse – the role of transparency

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 23 January 2013

"Join the transparency pioneers and take leadership or be part of the small group where opacity reigns”. That was the message at a seminar this week to Switzerland from Publish What You Pay an NGO campaigning for greater transparency in the minerals trade... Read more

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2013 – Year of the Carbon Tax?

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 17 January 2013

Is 2013 the year when environmental taxes will be mainstreamed? Despite political opposition, carbon taxes were introduced in 2012 in Australia and Japan. Ireland has a carbon tax and a scheme to tax household waste In the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland, residents are required to buy special bags to put their rubbish in... Read more 

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Sacha Inchi – A new “superfood”

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 15 January 2013

Peru exports over a USD100 million worth of natural products to the US and EU market. ITC is supporting companies to strengthen their access to the United States markets. In December, I visited the companies and learnt more about the challenges they face in both marketing and supply. Here is a snapshot from one field visit to San Martin in the Amazon basin... Read more

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the python skin trade

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 10 December 2012

Last week ITC in partnership with TRAFFIC and IUCN released a report on the trade in python skins. Many newspapers around the world including the BBC covered the story. The report also hit social media, with hundreds of blogs and twitter feeds written on the topic...Read more

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The Future of Aid for Trade – a dialogue

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 27 November 2012

“The Future of Aid for Trade” was the subject of a dialogue hosted last week by the WTO and organized by ICTSD and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland. Here are some of the key findings from presentations over the 1.5 day proceedings...Read more

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Why fair trade may not be the best way to help the poor

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 19 November 2012

MR University continues its online course on Development Economics with the most recent entry being a video on “Does fair trade help?” Here it is argued that middle income countries benefit the most from fair trade and not the poorest countries as was previously assumed... Read more

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Debunking food miles – taking a holistic approach to agro-food trade and climate change

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 12 November 2012

Up to a third of the greenhouse gas emissions come from production and consumption of food. As economies develop, they become more reliant on the import of food. However, the food miles concept that has caught on and persisted in several developed economies gives us only a partial view of the carbon footprint of food... Read more

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Reaching a political tipping point on climate change

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 07 November 2012

In his victory speech this morning, newly elected President Obama acknowledged “the destructive power of the warming planet”. Last week, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City endorsed President Barack Obama in his candidacy for the US President due in part to his climate change policies... Read more

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An evaluation framework for Aid for Trade projects with exporting firms

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 05 November 2012

How can Aid for Trade effectively reach the poor to help their participation in global value chains? This was the subject of a regular “ideas sharing” breakfast meeting held in ITC this week. The meeting shared approaches on how to reach these beneficiaries through sectoral development programmes...  Read more

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Coffee and Climate Change – a new Guide from ITC

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 22 October 2012

Climate change is challenging what people take for granted in terms of livelihoods and lifestyles. With projected 3°C to 5°C average rises in temperature this century, the resulting drop in productivity (to zero in places), will mean millions of smallholders having to find alternative livelihoods...Read more

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A strategy to increase green tourism competitiveness in developing countries

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 18 October 2012

A new book published this summer and launched at Rio +20 is entitled "Green Growth and Travelism - Letters from Leaders". It includes a Letter from Patricia Francis, Executive Director of ITC who speaks about the opportunities for developing countries in the green tourism niche and the work of ITC in this field... Read more  

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Finding Peru’s biodiversity in our shops

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 11 October 2012

In the streets of Lima you can buy lucuma ice cream. In Rio you can have pancakes with asai. Why in the age of globalization is it hard to find these Amazonian ingrediants in major US and European brands?... Read more  

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Trade, Water and Food Security

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 08 October 2012

The WTO PublicForum last week included a panel session on water and trade. A number of messages emerged from the discussions – here are some highlights.... Read more

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Professor Amartya Sen talks in Geneva

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 04 October 2012

Economics is a “moral and social science” but is subject to widespread scepticism – it is seen as subjective and imprecise. However, when economic analysis is ignored, the social cost can be enormous..... Read more

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Global Value Chains – five factors for export success

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 01 October 2012

Last week, I attended a couple of sessions at the WTO Public Forum including a highly informative High Level Expert Panel on Value Chains and Trade. It included three chief economists, a trade minister, a GEC executive and the WTO’s Chief of Staff.... Read more

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Packaging for the organic food sector - a new guide from ITC

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 22 September 2012

Traditional honey collection in Zambia (1905) – a practice still in use today and exported to speciality markets – but packaged first... Read more

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Counting biodiversity loss from trade

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 5 September 2012 

A Letter to Nature in June reports that 30% of global species threats are due to international trade. Consumers in developed countries are a threat to species through their demand for commodities that are produced in developing countries. The authors anticipate that their findings will facilitate better regulation, sustainable supply chain certification and consumer product labelling... Read more

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Mid term evaluation - Trade and Environment Programme

By Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 17 August 2012

As part of its commitment to transparency in the delivery of Aid for Trade, ITC recently completed an independent mid term evaluation of its Trade and Environment Programme. The TEP supports enterprises in developing countries to compete in the global market for green products and services. The focus of the programme to date has been the market for biodiversity based products and trade/climate change issues. It is implemented in Kenya, Peru and Zambia... Read more

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Rio+20 - What it means for Aid for Trade and ITC

By Amanda McKee and Alex Kasterine
Posted on, 11 August 2012 

The Rio+20 Conference was the largest conference ever convened in the history of the United Nations: roughly 44,000 conference badges were issued, including to representatives from 191 countries; 500 official side events were held; and approximately 3,000 unofficial events were organized in parallel to the conference throughout Rio de Janeiro, Brazil... Read more

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Climate change mitigation and adaptation in the Kenyan tea sector

By Amanda McKee and Yi Yuan
Posted on, 27 July 2012 

ITC has recently partnered up with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), Rainforest Alliance and FLO-CERT to support smallholder tea farmers to both adapt to and mitigate the climate change impacts associated with their supply chains. In this post, we explain our motivation for starting this project and what it will involve... Read more

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Services and the environment

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 27 July 2012 

Aaditya Mattoo, an economist from the World Bank was in Geneva recently giving a talk at ITC. He was presenting their Services Trade Restrictions Database that allows users to compare information on services trade policy measures for 103 countries across five sectors... Read more

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Market based instruments to address climate change - Part II

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 18 July 2012

Following on from my last post on the lecture at ITC by Professor Stavins, here are some of his thoughts on designing effective climate policies... Read more

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Market based instruments to address climate change

By Alex Kasterine 
Posted on, 13 July 2012

Recently, Professor Stavins of Harvard spoke at ITC as he was attending a GTAP conference ITC was co-hosting with the WTO and UNCTAD. For an hour, he spoke about climate change policy as well as touching on trade issues. This post relates to Professor Stavins' comments on market based instruments and political economy ... Read more

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