You are reading the 10th edition of the Green Trade Network's newsletter, coordinated by IEEP; this monthly digest acts as a nexus for information and key happenings within the world of Green Trade. If this is your first time receiving it, you can find out more here and follow us on Twitter.
From Dubai to Abu-Dhabi: growing momentum towards an improved alignment of the global trading system with environmental challenges?
COP28 concluded a few days ago with what many climate experts have described as a "disappointing success", a semantic paradox embodied in the historic, unprecedented and ultimately, insufficient, mention of the necessity to “transition away” from fossil fuels.
In a recent blogpost, IEEP’s attendees at Dubai provide analysis of the results of COP28 and flesh out what the EU can do in order to meet the objectives set out at the conclusion of the conference. But what was there for trade specifically? Despite a resurgence of tensions around unilateral measures, momentum seems to be building within the international trade diplomacy community for the need to harness international trade as a vehicle for sustainability.
Unilateral trade measures: an (expected) unwanted guest at the table
A few days prior to the start of the COP negotiations, the EU Commission had announced a new package of financial assistance (Team Europe initiative) to developing countries to support the implementation of the EUDR. Despite the EU’s effort to provide additional resource pledges, the newly introduced unilateral measures such as CBAM and the EUDR quickly became a recurring topic in the negotiations and a bargaining chip used by certain Parties to with the aim of getting concessions on the mitigation front. A coalition of CSOs, in which several GTN members took part, quickly identified that its mission should be to “jump on the CBAM bomb” (read below the story of our colleague Giulia Cretti from the Clingendael Institute) and find solutions to ease the tensions generated by the distributive economic and social impacts of Green Deal legislations in third countries. Unilateral measures were not taken up as an official agenda item of the GST discussions and eventually the manner in which they are mentioned in the final text is soft in tone. However, they are here to stay, all the more so since the UK announced this week its intention to implement its own CBAM as of 2027.
Growing momentum for trade and climate, towards the next WTO Ministerial Conference
International trade was given a special standing at this COP, where the very first “trade pavilion”, hosted 39 events convened by WTO secretariat, national delegations, and CSOs. This development underlines the climate community's growing interest in the role of international trade, and vice versa. Although there is only so much trade can do in the framework of a UNFCCC negotiating process, these discussions are a sign of a vitality and of growing momentum for a better permeation of environmental challenges in the global trading system. In this regard, attention will soon be shifting towards the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, taking place in Abu Dabhi at the end of February. The GTN recently exchanged views with Pr Daniel Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale, and Founding Partner of the Remaking Trade for a Sustainable Future project. A key and plausible starting point, which could be reached no later than in the next MC would be the adoption of an ambitious ministerial declaration recalling the overarching goal of the organisation set in the Marrakech Agreement of 1995, to pursue a global sustainable development. Additional MC13 action points and working papers of the Remaking Trade project can be found on the project’s website.
Christmas coming early this year for trade-and-environment-heads!
Let me wish you wish you a joyful festive season (the trade-nerd way) and provide you with my 5 must-read papers of the month, to read next to the fire:
Happy festive break!
Pierre Leturcq, Coordinator of the Green Trade Network
