Trade and environment policy is increasingly intertwined and the stakes are nearly always high in both trade and environmental terms. These issues are often complex and discussions tend to become very specialized, challenging policy practitioners to understand and follow all the various sub-strands of trade and environment debates. This Resource Book seeks to demystify these issues without losing the critical nuances.

This collaborative effort of some 61 authors from 34 countries provides relevant information as well as pertinent analysis on a broad set of trade and environment discussions while explaining, as clearly as possible, what are the key issues from a trade and environment perspective; what are the most important policy debates around them; and what are the different policy positions that define these debates.

The volume is structured and organized to be a reference document that is useful and easy to use. Our hope is that those actively involved in trade and environment discussions—as practitioners, as scholars and as activists—will be able to draw on the analysis and opinions in this book to help them advance a closer synergy between trade and environmental policy for the common goal of achieving sustainable development.