Kategorie: Allgemein

Multilateral Negotiations and ‘social distancing’

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, ,

Photo: Empty Benches in a Park as a symbol for social distancing

The year 2020 should have seen many major international conferences, mandated to take especially important decisions to protect the environment. The Convention on Biological Diversity was set to convene in China in October for its 15th conference of the parties (COP). The 26th Climate Change Conference (COP26) should have met in the United Kingdom in November and the World Trade Organization (WTO) was supposed to hold its Ministerial Conference in June. However, since March 2020, COVID-19 has led to the cancelation or postponement of those meetings. Many other multilateral conferences have been victim of the spread of COVID-19, with governments being forced to close borders and cancel conferences. Others, such as the G7, G20, the Petersberg Climate Dialogue or European Council meetings are taking place as video conferences. Whereas a teleconference with seven leaders might be a feasible solution, the two main options for multilateral negotiations – either delaying meetings or moving them online – both pose major challenges.

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Curb your enthusiasm: Corona may slow down multilateral process, but must not derail global climate policy

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, , , , ,

Photo: Railroad Tracks detour, Image by Gerald Friedrich on PixabayLast night the UK government together with UN climate officials announced that the UN climate change conference “COP26” that was set to convene in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2020, will be postponed into 2021 in response to the ongoing Corona crisis. …

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Lessons for Global Cooperation from the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, , , ,
Image: Numbers on a table of a stockmarket

Picture by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

The COVID-19 (or coronavirus) disease has led to a major pandemic that has spread to virtually all countries of the world. Although at the time of writing the epidemic has mainly hit South East Asian and Western countries (see Figure below), it is likely that Developing Countries (DCs) will also be heavily affected in the weeks to come.…

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Photo: Sculpture "Tug of War", by falco on Pixabay

A quid pro quo to save the WTO’s Appellate Body

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, , ,

Emerging countries such as Brazil, Mexico, India, China, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and to a lesser degree, Vietnam and Turkey have actively and successfully invoked the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system (DSS) to defend their commercial interests. With increased participation in world trade, their stake in an effective compulsory and binding mechanism for resolving…

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After one decade of G20 summitry: What future of global club governance in turbulent times?

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, , , , ,
Photo: Barb Wire with a Sigen that says "Private: No public right of way. G20 is an exclusive Club

By ASchrumm – CIGI Communications Dept, CC BY-SA 3.0

A decade ago the world was struggling with the repercussions of the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 that emerged in the interconnected transatlantic financial system. At this critical moment in time, the G20 was elevated from a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors to the level of heads of states and government. By including a number of rising as well as middle powers non G7 countries the first G20 summit in Washington in November 2008 made clear that current cross-border challenges cannot anymore be dealt with by the old powers of the traditional establishment. At the subsequent summits in London (April 2009) and Pittsburgh (September 2009) the G20 displayed an astonishing level of international cooperation by agreeing on wide-ranging commitments that helped to calm down international financial markets and strengthen the crisis response of international financial institutions. These early initiatives led some optimistic observers to conclude that the system worked.

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