Download UN handbook on trade and environment

Environment and Trade: A Handbook, published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), is intended to make the complex relationship between the environment and international trade more understandable and accessible to policy-makers, NGOs and the general public.

The book includes an overview of international environmental management, the development of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs); the basics of the World Trade Organization (WTO); the physical and economic linkages that bind trade and sustainable development; interactions between trade law and environmental law, both nationally and internationally; institutional issues and transparency in processes; and the environmental aspects of existing regional trade agreements such as NAFTA, the EU and Mercosur.

Although a print version is available to buy, a continually updated web version of the handbook is available for free on the internet. Readers can link to on-line articles and analyses that go into greater depth on the themes covered in the print version. The web version will also have other resources, such as a compendium of trade and environment disputes and links to other sites of interest.