UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT ARE THERE DOWNSIDES TO A GREEN ECONOMY? The Trade, Investment and Competitiveness Implications of Unilateral Green Economic Pursuit New York and Geneva, 2013 ii ARE THERE DOWNSIDES TO A GREEN ECONOMY? Note Symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with figures. Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Material in this publication may be freely quoted or reprinted, but acknowledgement is requested, together with a reference to the document number. A copy of the publication containing the quotation or reprint should be sent to the UNCTAD secretariat. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. Acknowledgements This paper was prepared by Aaron Cosbey (
[email protected]), Associate and Senior Climate Change and Trade Advisor of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) within the framework of the activities of the UNCTAD Climate Change Programme. The author would like to thank a number of reviewers for their valuable input on this text, including Lucas Assunção, Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, Eugenia Nunez, David Vivas-Eugui and Chris Beaton, as well as the participants of the UNCTAD/UNEP/DESA Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on The Green Economy: Trade and Sustainable Development Implications, Geneva, 7-8 October 2010.