About the Event

At the WTO’s Fourteenth Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, WTO members renewed their commitment to conclude additional rules on fisheries subsidies to strengthen the existing Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS). The adoption of further disciplines is critical for sustainable development, as they seek to address the role of subsidies in driving overfishing and overcapacity more broadly. 

As members prepare to resume negotiations, this webinar provided a concise yet comprehensive overview of the key developments in the "Fish 2" negotiations over the past 2 years. 

Following an overview of the major milestones leading to the conclusion of the AFS, IISD experts examined the evolution of the negotiating text throughout this second phase of talks. Designed to complement the thematic sessions organized within the formal negotiating process, the webinar equipped negotiators with the context and insights needed to inform their thinking and decision-making as they consider the path ahead. 

The global agri-food system is undergoing transformation driven by increasing consumer demand for sustainability, transparency, and ethical production practices, presenting both opportunities and challenges for COMESA countries.  

On one hand, it offers a pathway to enhance export competitiveness, diversify markets, and increase value addition. On the other hand, accessing sustainable markets remains a challenge for producers, SMEs, and exporters in the region.

This two-day learning series, co-hosted with the COMESA Secretariat, will help member states, producers, and SMEs in the region enhance their understanding of sustainability standards and their requirements, as well as emerging regulatory developments in key export markets—including horticulture, tea, coffee, and fisheries.

Through knowledge exchange and practical insights, participants will be better equipped to access sustainable markets, understand evolving market trends, and identify strategic actions to strengthen the competitive positioning of COMESA member states in global agri-food trade.

Recent developments in global energy markets are once again placing pressure on households, businesses, and public budgets. Governments are responding in different ways: while some have introduced broad-based fossil fuel subsidies, tax reductions, or price controls, others are pursuing more targeted and temporary support measures, often combined with efforts to reduce long-term dependence on fossil fuels and strengthen resilience to future price shocks.

Against this backdrop, this upcoming webinar on Fiscal Policy Responses to the Energy Price Shock, will focus on government responses to rising energy costs and the implications for fiscal policy, social protection, energy, and the clean energy transition. This is the second webinar in a two-part Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action (CFMCA) series on this topic.

The webinar aims to provide a space for finance ministries to exchange experiences and lessons learned from current and past energy price crises. The discussion will focus in particular on how short-term support measures can protect vulnerable households and businesses while preserving price signals, maintaining fiscal sustainability, and supporting longer-term energy transition objectives.

It will begin with an overview presentation examining recent energy price developments and emerging government responses across countries. The presentation will draw on lessons from previous crises, including the 2022/23 energy price surge, and discuss different policy approaches currently being implemented, ranging from blanket fuel subsidies and tax reductions to more targeted support mechanisms such as cash transfers, social assistance, and support for specific sectors.

The session will then provide participating countries with an opportunity to share practical experiences regarding the implementation of support measures, including the role of existing delivery systems, targeting mechanisms, data availability, and institutional coordination. In doing so, the session aims to facilitate peer exchange on approaches that can reduce exposure to future fossil fuel price volatility while ensuring social and political feasibility.

Tax incentives are a central feature of national investment laws across emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), yet how they are designed, governed, and monitored remains poorly understood. When poorly managed, they can generate substantial revenue losses and fall short of their intended investment outcomes.

A core part of the challenge is coordination. Investment promotion agencies and ministries of finance often operate under different mandates, creating gaps in the design, approval, and oversight of these incentives. This raises critical questions: how can fiscal oversight be ensured when incentives sit outside traditional tax policy processes? And how can investment and tax authorities better align their approaches?

This webinar continues the conversation initiated at the 2024 Investment Policy Forum, where closer engagement between tax and investment policy-makers emerged as a key priority. It forms part of IISD's broader effort to convene both communities around shared challenges and support more coherent approaches to attracting sustainable investment while safeguarding domestic resource mobilization.

During the event, our experts presented findings from IISD's newest report, Tax Incentives in Investment Laws, mapping the prevalence, design, and governance of tax incentives across 105 investment laws in EMDEs. The session then opened the floor to shared dialogue, exploring how governments can better align investment and tax policy and identify opportunities for continued collaboration.

Speakers

• Alexandra Readhead, Director, Tax and Debt, IISD (moderator)
• Suzy Nikièma, Director, Investment Law and Policy, IISD (moderator)
• Naa Lamle Orleans-Lindsay, Director, Legal Division, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Ghana
• Prudens Rweyongeza, Director of Legal Services, President's Office, Planning and Investment, Tanzania
• Eduardo José Sotelo Castañeda, Advisor, General Directorate of Public Revenue Policy, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Peru
• David O'Sullivan, Senior Economist, Global Tax Program, World Bank
• Josefina del Rosario Lago, Policy Analyst, Tax and Investment, IISD

Critical minerals are essential components of the technologies driving the energy and digital transitions. The International Energy Agency (IEA, 2022) projects that to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, global demand for minerals critical to renewable energy production facilities and associated technologies may quadruple by 2040 compared to 2020.

This growth in demand, which is already boosting new mining and mineral processing projects across the globe, will also significantly increase the sector’s environmental and social footprint, particularly in resource-rich countries seeking more added value to raw material extraction by attracting smelting and refining industries. There is a commensurate need to strengthen sustainable management practices and promote more responsible corporate behaviour across critical mineral supply chains.  

China maintains a dominant position across critical mineral processing value chains as well as in the manufacturing of key technologies for the energy and digital transition. It is the dominant refiner for 19 of the 20 critical minerals tracked by the IEA and holds an average market share of around 70% (IEA, 2025)—the exception being nickel, for which Indonesia is the world’s leading refiner, in part largely thanks to Chinese investment and technology. By strengthening and upholding ESG performance standards, Chinese companies can make significant positive contributions to the overall sustainability of the minerals sector globally. 

In this new study, IISD analyzes management practices of Chinese enterprises in global mineral supply chains from a sustainability perspective. It outlines the Chinese ESG management framework that exists across both government and voluntary standards in China, and examines how these compare to international voluntary sustainability standards.

Moreover, using interviews from stakeholders in the Indonesian nickel supply chain as a case study, it provides an overview of the main challenges Chinese companies face in implementing ESG practices, including supply chain due diligence, abroad. Finally, the study highlights key areas and measures that could contribute to enhancing ESG standards among Chinese mining and processing companies operating overseas.  

This webinar presented the main findings of the report, and featured a panel discussion with some key stakeholders to share the perspective from the private sector, industry association, and civil society.  

Speakers

• Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Vice-President, Global Strategies and Managing Director, Europe, IISD (moderator)
• Hans Baumgarten, Strategic Advisor, IISD
• Jun Ma, Director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs
• Tiantian Li, Director of the International Development Department at CCCMC
• Grita Anindarini, Senior Strategist at Indonesian Center for Environmental Law

Governments are increasingly relying on a mix of fiscal, regulatory, and trade and investment measures to drive the green transition, often as part of broader industrial strategies. Among these, green tax incentives have emerged as a key instrument.

The use of green tax incentives raises important questions of policy coherence, effectiveness, and accountability. Recent analysis by IISD indicates that many emerging and developing economies are adapting tax policies to support clean investment and renewable energy deployment. In low-income contexts facing administrative and fiscal constraints, tax incentives may sometimes be perceived as a more feasible option than alternative support mechanisms such as feed-in tariffs. However, poorly designed incentives can also generate revenue losses, fail to attract investment, and opportunities for rent-seeking underscoring the importance of governance, targeting, and monitoring.

International experience suggests that incentives are most effective when embedded within a coherent and mutually reinforcing policy framework. A recent paper on industrial decarbonisation by the Council on Economic Policies (CEP) highlights that such incentives must be aligned with regulatory certainty, sectoral priorities, and robust governance to achieve meaningful emissions reductions. Aligning incentives with national development objectives can further ensure that the green transition strengthens competitiveness, supports industrial upgrading, and expands access to clean energy in an inclusive manner.

In this context, Addis Tax Initiative (ATI), IISD, and CEP convene partner countries and other stakeholders in this session to explore how green tax incentives can deliver maximum impact when integrated into a coherent policy architecture aligned with other instruments such as carbon pricing, performance standards, and wider industrial strategies. 

The webinar will highlight the importance of cross-government coordination, bringing together ministries of finance, climate and energy policymakers, and industrial strategy institutions to support the design and implementation of targeted incentives that deliver emissions reductions alongside jobs, competitiveness, and economic development.

The discussion will address three main themes:

1. When and how can green tax incentives support low-carbon and resilient growth while protecting revenue?
2. How do incentives interact with other instruments (e.g., carbon pricing, standards, public finance, and investment policy), and what coordination is needed across government?
3. What lessons can be drawn across country contexts, including differences in incentive design and implementation capacity between high-income and low- and middle-income countries?

The event will take place virtually on June 2, 2026, from 13:00 to 14:30 CEST. The webinar will be delivered in English with simultaneous interpretation in French. Register here by June 1. 

The full agenda can be found here.

National investment laws are increasingly recognized as a critical—yet often overlooked—pillar of the international investment governance framework. While much attention has focused on reforming investment treaties, a parallel challenge has gone largely unaddressed: many domestic investment laws still contain broad or automatic consent to international arbitration, exposing states to the same financial and regulatory risks that drive treaty reform.

Two new publications from IISD and UNCTAD shed light on this issue from complementary perspectives.  

• IISD's report, Unpacking National Investment Laws: Dispute Settlement Function, analyzes 167 national investment laws across all regions, mapping how dispute settlement is designed in practice—from the role of national courts and arbitration to emerging alternative mechanisms such as administrative review and amicable settlement. It finds that nearly 79% of laws contain dispute settlement provisions and that among those that reference arbitration, 44% include advance consent—a practice that carries significant and often uncontrollable legal and financial risks.
• UNCTAD's Investment Policy Monitor No. 32, Investor–State Arbitration Under Investment Laws: Risks and Policy Lessons, examines 99 known investor–state arbitration cases brought under national investment laws. It reveals that nine out of 10 such cases target developing economies, that investors prevail in 58% of cases decided on the merits, and that average damages awarded reach USD 215 million per case. The analysis draws practical lessons from arbitral practice on issues that include the interpretation of consent clauses, transitional provisions when laws are repealed, the legality of investment, and the interaction between domestic laws and treaty obligations.

On May 7, IISD and UNCTAD hosted a webinar to explore key findings and reform needs identified in the publications. A panel of experts, government officials, and legal practitioners discussed the risks posed by dispute settlement provisions in investment laws, emerging good practices, and the importance of governments reforming their international investment treaties and domestic investment frameworks in a coherent manner.

This webinar is part of IISD's Rethinking International Investment Governance project, which supports evidence-based reform of investment treaties, national investment laws, and investor–state contracts. It builds directly on IISD's 2023 report, Rethinking National Investment Laws: A Study of Past and Present Laws to Inform Future Policy-Making, which identified seven core functions of investment laws and proposed a framework for their design and reform. The Unpacking National Investment Laws series provides deep dives into individual functions, starting with dispute settlement. For more information, visit: https://www.iisd.org/projects/rethinking-international-investment-governance

As part of its mandate, UNCTAD provides policy-makers and the global investment community with up-to-date information about the latest developments and salient features in foreign investment policies. UNCTAD's Investment Policy Hub offers a comprehensive and freely accessible platform covering all aspects of national and international investment policy-making. The Hub brings together analysis, news, and policy tools, as well as key resources, such as Investment Policy Reviews, the Investment Policy Monitor, and specialized databases of investment laws, treaties, and dispute settlement cases, supporting informed decision making and promoting a transparent and predictable investment environment worldwide.

For more information, visit: https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/

Speakers

• Suzy Nikièma, Director, Investment Law and Policy, IISD
• Massimo Meloni, chief, Policy Research Section, UNCTAD
• Josef Ostřanský, senior policy sdvisor, IISD
• Anastasia Leskova, associate legal officer, UNCTAD
• Stanley U. Nweke-Eze, policy advisor, IISD
• Mr. Amr Arafa, Counsellor, Egyptian State Lawsuits Authority (ESLA)
• Peter Tzeng, Partner, Foley Hoag LLP.

The investment required to tackle climate change is unprecedented—especially in emerging economies such as India, where public finance alone cannot meet growing climate and development needs. Mobilizing private capital at scale, while using limited public and philanthropic resources strategically, is therefore critical. At the same time, stronger market foundations such as bankable project pipelines, supportive policy reform, and clear climate taxonomies are essential to unlock investment.

India has made significant strides in deploying innovative climate finance instruments, including sovereign and municipal green bonds, concessional finance, guarantees, and risk‑mitigation mechanisms. These tools are increasingly being used to crowd in private capital across sectors such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, agriculture, and climate adaptation.  

As climate finance ecosystems across emerging economies continue to evolve, a clearer understanding of how and where different financial instruments and mechanisms can be deployed most effectively is critical to mobilizing investment at scale. Recognizing the distinct roles of these tools can help shape blended‑finance partnerships and identify opportunities where public and philanthropic capital can be used strategically to catalyze private investment.

The webinar “Climate Finance: Mechanisms and instruments for emerging economies,” the final session in the IISD–IIM Calcutta climate finance series, will explore how these instruments can be designed and deployed effectively in India and other emerging economies. The webinar brings together experts from finance and research institutions. It will highlight practical lessons, remaining challenges, and opportunities to accelerate climate action at scale. 

Agenda

Welcoming Remarks

Priyami Dutta, Policy Advisor, IISD

Context Setting

Swasti Raizada, Senior Policy Advisor, IISD

Panel Discussion

Moderator: Professor Mritiunjoy Mohanty, IIM Calcutta 

Vibhuti Garg, Director, South Asia, The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

Upendra Bhatt, Co-founder and Managing Director, cKinetics

Madhura Joshi,  Programme Lead - Global Clean Power Diplomacy, E3G

Gaylor Montmasson-Clair, Founding Director, Southern Transition

Yanne Horas, Associate, IISD

Q&A

Closing Remarks

Professor Runa Sarkar, IIM Calcutta 

The event marked the launch of two major initiatives: Emissions Ambition for Sustainable Economies (EASE) in Southeast Asia and Energy is Key (EnerKey), both of which are funded by Global Affairs Canada and implemented by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. EASE supports efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through inclusive carbon pricing policies in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, while EnerKey aims to help mitigate climate change by supporting the decarbonization of the transport and power sectors in Indonesia and the Philippines.  

Bringing together government officials, energy experts, researchers, and civil society representatives, the event explored how Southeast Asian countries can translate climate ambition into policies that are both economically viable and socially equitable.

Full coverage of the event discussions and key takeaways is available here. 

At the same time, global climate governance is evolving. Alongside the traditional consensus-based UN process, a form of “two-speed multilateralism” is emerging where coalitions of willing countries and non-state actors advance practical initiatives and voluntary roadmaps. As the world looks toward COP 31 and the implementation of the World Health Organization’s Global Action Plan on Climate Change and Health, this evolving governance landscape raises important questions about how climate action can better advance health outcomes.

This hybrid event will bring together governments, international organizations, civil society, and academia to take stock of COP 30 outcomes, explore opportunities to strengthen the climate–health agenda in the lead-up to COP 31, and examine how new coalitions and political initiatives can accelerate action.

Speakers

• Opening remarks by Suerie Moon | Co-Director, Global Health Centre and Professor of Practice, International Relations, Geneva Graduate Institute
• Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum | Head of Unit, Climate Change, Energy, and Air Quality, World Health Organization
• Miguel Ruiz Botero | Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations in Geneva
• Margarita Gutierrez | Policy Advisor, Friends of Climate and Health
• Daniela Morich | Head of Policy Engagement & Global Health Platform, Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute (Moderator)
• Additional speakers will be announced closer to the event

Co-hosts

The Global Health Centre's International Geneva Global Health Platform, the World Health Organisation, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and Geneva Environment Network.