The World Trade Organization (WTO) has espoused a commitment to sustainable development, yet current WTO rules are in tension with global environmental protection efforts.
At the WTO’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference in December 2017, ministers adopted a Decision on Fisheries Subsidies directing negotiators to continue talks with a view to adopting an agreement by 2019, the year of the next ministerial conference.
The government as an entity is quite often the largest, single consumer of goods and services in developed as well as developing countries. Government procurement can be a powerful tool for positive environmental change by creating a market for environmental goods and services.