IUCN Environmental Law Centre (ELC)

This guide has been prepared by the IUCN Environmental Law Programme and the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD), in cooperation with the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Energy has recently emerged at the forefront of sustainable development. The United Nations Development Programme’s World Energy Assessment (2000) linked energy and most of the ills of modern society in both developed and developing countries. The World Summit on Sustainable Development selected energy as one of its five major agenda issues, devising a Plan of Implementation emphasising the role of energy in eradicating poverty.

This guide has been prepared by the IUCN Environmental Law Programme and the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD), in cooperation with the World Resources Institute (WRI).

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development placed a responsibility on States to protect the local, regional and global environment, especially problems shared by the whole community such as soil degradation.

For many years, concerns have been expressed about environmental issues in the Arctic. While the Arctic region, unlike Antarctica, has been inhabited for thousands of years, it is under unique threat because of its vulnerability toward resource exploitation and the deposition of various airborne pollutants. With its varied populations, and with eight Nations asserting territorial interests, the Arctic needs a careful approach to its protection and development.

This publication contains four papers on different legal issues of interest to developing countries. The papers were researched and written by four Carl Duisberg Gesellscaft (CDG) Fellows who came to Germany from Bangladesh, Venezuela, Nigeria and China to study under the host leadership of the IUCN Environmental Law Centre.

This book is a unique attempt to bring to light the status of environmental legal systems in Portuguese speakiing countries across Africa and Brazil, presenting a platform for future South-South collaboration. The different articles present environmental legal frameworks of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Principe, and focus on national legislative processes in the context of environmental concerns.

This paper addresses the environmental and developmental impacts of patent protection by specifically focusing on the global agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). While the TRIPS agreement serves as an important step in harmonizing international intellectual property systems, the author contends that it currently fails to properly balance public and private interests, especially in the gap between rich and poor.