Tesco Pilots Carbon Footprinting Scheme	Tesco, the UK-based global retailer, has introduced new carbon labels on 20 of its products under a new pilot scheme.The scheme seeks to go beyond the simple 'food miles' concept by considering the carbon emissions during the full life cycle of selected goods. more
'Responsible' Soy Stirs Controversy	Stakeholders in the soy business seeking to develop sustainability criteria for their industry have met with tough resistance from civil society groups. Environmentalists choosing to sidestep the multi-stakeholder initiative have called it a 'greenwash,' saying that any expansion of soy production would have dire environmental and social consequences and that the only solution is to cut consumption in the North. more
Calls for Exempting Small-Scale Fishing from Subsidy Rules Divide WTO Members	WTO Members last week disagreed on the extent to which future multilateral rules on fisheries subsidies should include exceptions for payments to the small-scale fishing sector, as Canada and some other developed countries sought controversial exemptions for their own industry. more
CITES: Technical Committees Progress Work	The Plants and Animal Committees under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) recently met in Geneva, where they successfully completed technical groundwork on politically sensitive issues such as trade in economically valuable timber species.. more

In Brief

EU Biodiesel Producers Launch Trade Complaint

Events    &   Resources
Events	5-16 May, New York, U.S.:16th SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. This review session at United Nations headquarters will focus on agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa. Internet: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd
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Resources	THE MUTLILATERAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT CONTEXT FOR BIOFUELS. By Sophia Murphy (IIED, 2008). This paper looks at the multilateral trade and investment context for biofuels. Biofuels are a relatively new arrival in the world of global trade, though not quite so new to investors. A few countries, notably Brazil, have a biofuel industry that dates back to the 1970s, but it is only in the last few years that biofuels have captured the headlines and really taken off. The production, investment and the time given to biofuels on the policy agenda have all increased exponentially since 2003. This paper is focused on the agricultural crops that are being converted into liquid fuel on a commercial scale, especially, but not only, in response to the recent surge in demand from both the EU and the United States, two of the world's largest energy users. The biofuels reviewed are ethanol and biodiesel, which are the principal traded biofuels. The analysis looks at trade issues for biofuels, investment issues for biofuels, and some of the issues on developing standards. The paper concludes with some proposals for how governments, particularly small and medium-sized economies, might develop appropriate trade and investment rules to support a fair and sustainable biofuels sector. The paper is available at http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=15513IIED
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ISSN 1682-0843