ABSTRACT
The concept of global public good (GPG) draws from at least two theoretical backgrounds. The first one relates to the extension to the global level of the public good theory developed in the 1950s by the economist and Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson. It builds on the two attributes of publicness: non-rivalry and non-excludability. The second theory comes from the field of critical political economy. It focuses on the limitations of the current international architecture to address global challenges. In the absence of one unique international government on global environmental governance, one individual regime or one world environment organization, collective actions between state and non-state actors at the global level are essential for the provision of GPGs. Plant genetic resources are not inherently global public goods but it was a decision of the member states to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture to construct them this way.
