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We hope that this book is not just readable, but also useful and use able. This book flows from the realization that the trade and environment policy debate is technically complex, is becoming highly specialized and is full of cumbersome—and not always useful—jargon. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to understand and follow all the various strands of trade and environment debates. This is not only true for new entrants into the policy debates, but also for seasoned practitioners who may have been focusing only on some elements of trade and environment discussions, or on adjacent discussions within either the broader trade policy arena or the broader environmental policy space. This can also impose particular and significant stress on developing country capacities to participate in these discussions. More importantly, there is the danger of the policy focus becoming ever-narrower and, therefore, missing the cross-issue connections that are sometimes central to resolving complex and inter-linked policychallenges

It has now been more than three decades since representatives of 113 nations assembled in June 1972 for the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE ), the Stockholm Conference. Stockholm was the fi rst of the major global conferences. It was the beginning of a ’new journey of hope’ where we put the environment fi rmly on the global agenda.