Voluntary sustainability standards are becoming increasingly popular tools for implementing and enforcing the adoption of sustainable practices in international supply chains. But voluntary standards come in many shapes and sizes, with varying objectives.

India has historically subsidized energy with the objective of protecting its consumers from international price volatility and providing energy access for its citizens, especially the poor. This guide focuses on the scale and impacts of energy subsidies in India.

This report surveys the publicly available estimates of subsidies to biofuels and conventional liquid transport fuels,
including both consumption subsidies and the production subsidies provided to the oil industry. This report:

The extent to which governments subsidize electricity generation technologies is not generally clear. However, claims abound that each generation type—nuclear, fossil fuel and renewables-benefits to the detriment of others.

This paper is intended to explore the possibilities for a more consistent approach in the WTO to subsidies as a policy tool, in the context of one particularly important domestic and global policy challenge: climate change. The paper begins by outlining the possible role that that subsidies might play in climate mitigation policy.

This paper reflects the state of the REDD negotiations at the end of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. The paper examines some of the main areas for moving ahead with REDD implementation, including principles and actions; measurement, reporting and verification (MRV); institutional arrangements; means of implementation and financing.

This report argues that the WTO has committed to helping achieve sustainable development, and asks what the institution would look like it the members took that goal seriously. It surveys current practice and recommendations in areas as diverse as accession, dispute settlement, negotiations, trade and environment, trade and development and the process of self-assessment.

This document is the first issue of new Policy Brief series, presented by Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI).
These briefs are designed to provide timely analysis and policy guidance on emerging subsidy issues.

The first brief canvasses the G-20 recent call to phase out subsidies to fossil fuels and considers how to turn the announcement into action.

This background paper provides an overview of the role and profile of international carbon market mechanisms in a new international post-2012 climate change agreement. The paper first reviews the three market-based instruments under the Kyoto Protocol and then examines a range of possible market mechanisms under consideration in the international climate change negotiations.

This paper focuses on the renewed interest in purchasing or leasing land, and securing water rights for agricultural production; it does not focus on other forms of foreign investment in agriculture. It identifies the key drivers behind the recent surge in these investments, and examines prevailing trends in reported land contracts. The range of legal issues