WTO, UNEP issue joint report on trade and climate change
As the world's government work towards a new international treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the trade implications of countries' climate change policies have emerged as a point of serious contention.
As the world's governments work towards a new international treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the trade implications of countries' climate change policies have emerged as a point of serious contention.
Against this backdrop, the WTO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have jointly published a report describing the links between trade and climate change.
The analytical review forthrightly acknowledges that reducing trade barriers could lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Liberalizing trade could spur increased economic activity, in turn leading to greater energy use. But it stresses that the relationship is not that straightforward: trade opening could push a country to shift economic activity to less polluting sectors.
Lower tariffs on climate-friendly technology could reduce the cost of fighting climate change - a point on which the report lays particular emphasis.
And climate change itself could affect trade patterns, for instance, by changing the kinds of crops it is possible to grow in a country."Not a prescription, but an explanation," was how UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner described the report at its launch on 26 June.
The largely descriptive book lived up to this billing, notable as much for its content as for the unprecedented cooperation it represented between the global trade body and the UN's environmental office.
It faithfully reported the conclusions of a wide range of studies by academics, NGOs, international organisations, and steered carefully clear of drawing controversial conclusions - although some might be unhappy with its refusal to rule out the possibility that curbs on trade for climate policy reasons could be deemed WTO-consistent.
The report opens with a survey of current scientific knowledge about climate change, outlining different projections for atmospheric greenhouse gas levels and estimates for how various parts of world would be affected in terms of food security, water resources, coastal infrastructure, health, and biodiversity.
It looks at options for mitigation (reducing the rate and magnitude of climate change) and adaptation (action that aims to soften the blow of climate change, or take advantage of any benefits).
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Source: International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
