Please download the Rapporteurs’ Report for this session here.
Please download the brochure with additional information by clicking on the picture.
Identifying and exploiting leverage points to improve the sustainability of the international trade in these commodities is one of the most critical sustainable development challenges we face in the twenty-first century. Given the complex geographies, teleconnections and interdependencies that define contemporary global trade, this is no easy task.
This session will examine two interrelated topics. First what are the available modeling and analytical approaches that can tell us about the wider sustainability implications of trade. And secondly, what do we know from practical experience about how relevant such approaches are to decision-making, land management and governance – particularly in helping to determine which actors in supply chains have different levels of responsibility, capacity and motivation to act. The presenters will include leading researchers, policymakers and practitioners.
The first section will highlight recent advances in foot-printing analyses, value-chain modelling and green accounting. The second section will draw on lessons learned from efforts to bring about shifts towards more sustainable and inclusive supply chains, highlighting implementation challenges, including cross-sectoral and multi-jurisdictional governance arrangements, performance verification and the resolution of rights-based disputes. In the third section, leading sustainability thinkers will give critical reactions to the issues raised, and an interactive discussion will follow, which seeks to close the gap between our more technical understanding of sustainability challenges related to trade, and what it means to deliver on them in practice.
Download the session description here.
Programme
Contact: Tim Beringer