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Fair trade and equitable distribution

Fair trade and equitable distribution. Dr Mike Adcock Director, Master of Laws Programme Durham University. Principle 4: Just reward. Biofuels should be developed in accordance with trade principles that are fair and recognise the rights of people to

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Fair trade and equitable distribution

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  1. Fair trade and equitable distribution Dr Mike Adcock Director, Master of Laws Programme Durham University

  2. Principle 4: Just reward Biofuels should be developed in accordance with trade principles that are fair and recognise the rights of people to just reward (including labour rights and intellectual property rights)

  3. Brazilian bioethanol

  4. Fair trade: challenges • Ensuring fair reward in global agriculture settings is challenging • Current Fairtrade schemes are insufficient • As yet, no internationally agreed biofuels fair trade principles exist • Countries have differing capacities to enforce ethical principles for fair trade

  5. Recommendations • Biofuels targets should promote fair trade principles • Changes to targets must carefully consider possible impacts on developing countries • EU and national trade principles developed as part of biofuels regulation should be proportionate

  6. Intellectual property Two key IPRs (Intellectual Property Rights) • Patents over novel inventions that make technical or industrial contributions to human knowledge • Plant variety rights which may be used to protect a new plant variety specifically bred for its use in biofuels production

  7. IP licences Licensing agreements should: • Encourage rapid dissemination of information • Foster innovation • Ensure opportunities for all parties to obtain returns • Provide certainty over: • scope of the licence • rights associated with the technology • ownership of rights arising from any research using the technology

  8. Recommendations • The UK Intellectual Property Office should develop a licence scheme for biofuels based on current international guidelines • More research should be carried out on the economic and social impacts of intellectual property in this field

  9. Principle 5: Equitable distribution Costs and benefits of biofuels should be distributed in an equitable way • Rule 1 Symmetry between benefits and harms • Rule 2 Benefit sharing to further Millennium Development Goals

  10. Policies for equitable distribution • Difference between ‘public good’ and benefits which may only help certain sections of society, for example: • Sufficient supply of liquid transport fuel in the developed world may endanger livelihoods elsewhere • Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions may mean food insecurity in poorer communities • Policies should aim to broadly maximise benefits, reduce costs and ensure no additional inequities

  11. Recommendations • Biofuels policy and future sustainability initiatives should not discourage local, small-scale biofuels production, particularly in developing countries that are fuel poor • Policies should ensure that benefits of biofuels production are shared equitably, for example, through public–private partnerships

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