Browse Research

The brochure Past Successes and Future Opportunities covers examples of UNDP’s work in protecting the global ozone layer, advancing sustainable cooling solutions for and tackling climate change, and highlighting linkages to the Sustainable Development Goals.

The report Tackling Fossil Fuel Subsidies through International Trade Agreements analyses the compatibility of five selected fossil fuel support measures in the Group of 20 (G20) countries with the WTO’s 1994 Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM). The exercise has never been attempted before, and doing so, it identifies some of the key legal questions and challenges faced at the WTO.

Specifically, the findings highlight the difficulty of litigating fossil fuel consumption subsidies, measures that remain substantial. While enhanced transparency could help address some of the challenges complainants may face, fossil fuel subsidy notification rates within the WTO system remain disappointingly low.

In light of these shortcomings, the paper identifies five complementary avenues for reform of international trade policy to enable countries to better address fossil fuel subsidies:

The Commodities and Forests Agenda 2020: Ten Priorities to Remove Tropical Deforestation from Commodity Supply Chains is intended to serve as a framework for action at the global and regional level in order to accelerate progress in addressing commodity-driven deforestation.

The Briefing Paper Upscaling Green Bond Markets: The Need for Harmonised Green Bond Standards looks at the potential of green bonds and discusses the need to standardise green bonds as well as the possibility of establishing a coherent international framework for green bond standards.

The study Policy Options for Improving Drought Resilience and Its Implication for Food Security: The Cases of Ethiopia and Kenya presents and critically examines the drought policies and institutional frameworks of two African countries frequently challenged by droughts - Ethiopia and Kenya.