By Devika Dutt and Kevin P. Gallagher The long-standing gridlock in trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) has shifted the focus of trade negotiations to bilateral and plurilateral trade and investment agreements. Since the inception of the WTO in 1995, over 2,000 regional and bilateral trade and investment treaties have been negotiated and […]
By Hua-Ke (Kate) Chi On Thursday, January 26, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar discussion for the 2023 update of the China’s Overseas Development Finance (CODF) Database, a global, harmonized, validated and geolocated database recording loan commitments from two major development finance institutions (DFIs) in China, the China Development Bank […]
By Christina Duran Closing out the Fall 2022 Global China Research Colloquium, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic, sovereign debt and the case of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region on Tuesday, December 13, 2022. Daniel Bradlow, SARCHI Professor of International Development Law and […]
A controversial legal process known as investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) is making it difficult for governments to mobilize finance for ambitious climate action. When assets are protected by international investment treaties, like the Energy Charter Treaty, legal claims can be brought against countries by investors who feel they are negatively impacted by government policies. For […]
In 2009, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved reforms to make short-term operations available to low-income countries and reform lending to higher-income countries. Many scholars have noted that the 2008 Global Financial Crisis appeared to loosen austerity measures in favor of more counter-cyclical approaches. However, it remains an open question whether the IMF followed through […]
In parallel to a chaotic 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, leaders of Group of 20 (G20) countries met in Bali, Indonesia from November 15-16 for the G20 Leaders’ Summit against a backdrop of worsening climate impacts, an ongoing energy crisis, Russia’s war in Ukraine and skyrocketing inflation. Expectations for the […]
By Jiajun Xu and Kevin P. Gallagher According new research by the United Nations, swift and radical transformation towards renewable energy systems is needed to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, but there is a wide gap between need and delivery. In a new journal article published in Studies in Comparative International Development, we […]
By 2030, global emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) must drop by 45 percent from 2010 levels to stay on a 1.5° path, while the cost of inaction could be as high as 4 percent of US growth domestic product. For the world to meet the decarbonization and climate mitigation goals set out in the Paris […]
By Yudong (Nathan) Liu On Tuesday, October 11, 2022, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar discussion with Paulo Esteves, Coordinator of the Socio-Environmental Platform and the Global South Unit for Mediation at the BRICS Policy Center of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro and Rebecca Ray, Senior Academic […]
In the first decade of the 21st century, China’s rapid urbanization and investment-led growth model brought skyrocketing demand for raw commodities and an ensuing investment wave in Amazon basin countries. In the wake of this “China boom,” national governments in Amazon basin countries enacted a series of social and environmental protections, many of which were […]