WTO DG Says Trade Integral Part of Fighting Climate Change
Climate goals cannot be reached without taking into account the role of international trade, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a Nov. 8 speech at an event with world leaders at the COP27 climate summit. In her speech, Okonjo-Iweala marked the publication of the World Trade Report, which lays out paths for governments to use trade to support national action plans for grappling with climate change, the WTO said. Examples of this trade action include lowering trade barriers for environmental goods and services, boosting cooperation on carbon measurement and verification, and shifting the WTO's Aid-for-Trade initiative to an investment program that expands sustainable trade opportunities in developing nations.
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"There is one big missing issue in what we need to do to fight climate change, and that is the absence of trade and trade policies in the nationally determined contributions and national adaptation plans,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “We cannot afford to leave trade and WTO behind. ... The reason we're here to launch this report is because we want to make that point, and to offer specific recommendations and some actions that countries can take and fold into the revision of their plans."
"International cooperation on trade-related climate policy, such as carbon pricing and decarbonization standards, can also minimize trade frictions and investor uncertainty arising from unilateral climate actions, which may in turn impose disproportionate costs on firms and governments in developing countries," the WTO said. "The WTO can play a valuable role as a venue for transparency and potential harmonization of such measures, the report notes."