Globalisation Informed by Sustainable Development Deliverable No:  D14 Title:  First Protoype:  Policy‐making for sustainability:

Policy-making for sustainability faces particular challenges in the era of globalisation. As global markets for resources, products and technologies are increasingly integrated, reducing resource use in a single jurisdiction will not necessarily lead to reduced resource use globally. One way to address this dilemma is the negotiation and effective implementation of international agreements on environmental and economic policy. International environmental regimes have a long history in world politics. The International Environmental Agreements Database Project lists the impressive number of 1102 multilateral environmental agreements1, although most of them do not reach anywhere near universal (global) membership. Economic policy-making, especially regarding trade, is also subject to some international treaties, most notably the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor institution, the World Trade Organization (WTO). So far, economic cooperation has concentrated on liberalisation and market 'opening ' rather than on direct regulation in the service of policy goals such as sustainability. But there is pressure building for a progressive evolution of this traditional role (Finger 2008). The use and trade of natural resources, however, is less comprehensively regulated. Undoubtedly, much of this reluctance stems from their critical role for the developmental and military activities of the nation-state. This is particularly problematic in the case o