Global trade and environmental innovation: An opportunity for climate protection?

Against the backdrop of the impressions from the Climate Conference in Bali at the end of 2007, adelphi organised an international workshop: "WTO rules and their influence on environmental innovations". The workshop addressed the resolutions of relevance to trade passed at the Bali Conference and the wider scope for trade and climate protection, as well as the areas of conflict looming were discussed. Another special objective of the workshop was to develop points of contact between international and global trade regimes (primarily the WTO) and a political strategy for promoting environmental innovation. The event brought together 30 international experts – economists, political scientists and international lawyers.

So the workshop took its place alongside ongoing efforts from the German Federal Environment Ministry aimed at establishing an economic foundation for environmental policy. It was supplemented by a parallel workshop in which the concept of "ecological industry policy" was intensively examined from an academic perspective.