One of the objectives of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS), first adopted in 2001 and renewed in 2006, is to “actively promote sustainable development worldwide and ensure that the European Union’s internal and external policies are consistent with global sustainable development and its international commitments”. To this end, the SDS announced various policy measures in areas such as energy and climate change, the management of natural resources, and sustainable production and consumption. While climate change is at the top of the political agenda, other external aspects of the SDS are not receiving the same level of policy attention. That is why the conference, which brought together experts, officials and stakeholders from EU Member States and non-EU countries, in particular developing countries, also addressed such issues as the impact of the EU’s consumption of natural resources on the global environment, with case studies of biofuels, the Common Fisheries Policy and the regulation of international trade in illegally harvested timber.

The proceedings were published in 2010 in a theme issue of Studia Diplomatica, the Brussels Journal of International Relations, and can now be ordered by downloading the order form (which also includes the detailed table of contents) below.