The Greenhouse Gas Reduction scheme is a cap-and-trade mechanism designed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of electricity producers, retailers, high emitting industries and facilities. These include power generators, electricity retailers, large energy users (over 100GWh/year) and ‘market customers’ – facilities such as factories that take electricity supply directly from the national grid.
The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) aim to provide minimum criteria for certification schemes and voluntary standards on sustainable tourism. Developed by the Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism, the criteria cover 4 aspects:
The Global e-Sustainability Initiative is a voluntary industry led initiative that brings together 32 industry partners to address sustainability in the ICT sector.
Launched in 2001 in partnership with UNEP, the Global e-Sustainability Initiative has 5 main areas of work:
Biodiversity offsets are a form of conditional environmental financing. Like their more well-known cousin, carbon offsets, various parties (e.g. governments, companies or individuals) look to offset the damage they cause in one location by purchasing offset credits from an alternative location.
Reducing Emissions from forest Degradation and Deforestation (REDD) is a policy measure designed to stop forest damage by placing an economic value on forests remaining intact. It has been proposed at the international level in United Nations climate change negotiations, however exact details are still in development.
The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility is an initiative hosted by the World Bank and designed to assist ‘tropical and subtropical forest countries develop the systems and policies for REDD+’. REDD is an innovative market based instrument designed to place value on standing forests and so reduce emissions from forest destruction and deforestation.
The FCPF has two main components:
The Rainforest Alliance Certified seal can appear on farmers’ produce if they have complied with standards set by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN). These standards are predominantly environmental; however they also include social and economic aspects.
The SAN standards are guided by 10 principles, outlined below:
The International Standards Organisation has developed a series of standards that specify principles and requirements for organisations involved in greenhouse gas emission reporting. The ISO standards can be seen as guiding protocols providing general guidelines for the development of other programmes or standards.
The Global Environment Fund is a private company that manages approximately US$ 1 billion of private equity It has 3 strategic areas for ‘green’ investment.
1. Growth in the United States
Investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and environmental infrastructure.
2. Emerging Markets
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement claims to be the ‘most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property’.
It covers a host of intellectual property rights and claims including copyright, trademarks, geographical indicators, industrial designs, patents, layout designs for integrated circuits, and undisclosed information (trade secrets and test data). The Agreement sets out principles that govern WTO member states and their national Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) legislation
