Cross-cutting Issues: Trade and Climate Change
What's New in Trade and Climate Change?
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In June 2008, IISD collaborated with the Government of Denmark, the German Marshall Fund and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development to convene a major seminar on trade and climate change in Copenhagen. The event's background papers have been revised and finalized, and constitute excellent brief surveys of the key issues in each of the six areas covered:
- Liberalization of Trade in Environmental Goods for Climate Change Mitigation: The Sustainable Development Context (PDF - 200 kb)
- Border Carbon Adjustment PDF - 150 kb
- Embodied Carbon in Traded Goods PDF - 173 kb
- Climate Change, Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Rights PDF - 181 kb
- Clean Energy Investment PDF - 139 kb
- Standards, Labelling and Certification PDF - 176 kb
The event's summary remarks are also available, as is a comprehensive report (PDF - 700 kb) that covers all the themes from this meeting. Support for this event came from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Government of Denmark and the German Marshall Fund.
Background
Since 1999, the IISD has explored the linkages between trade and climate change. Our work continues to focus on defining areas of linkage: identifying ways in which trade policy might effectively support the objectives of addressing climate change and identifying areas of potential conflict between the objectives of the two regimes.
In the summer of 2008, the IISD began co-ordinating a two-year collaborative effort of research and analysis to deepen our understanding of six key areas of trade and climate change linkages:
- Liberalization of trade in low-carbon goods
- Border carbon adjustment mechanisms
- Intellectual property rights and technology transfer
- Investment in clean energy technologies
- Fossil fuel subsidy reduction
- Trade law flexibilities for subsidies to address climate change
This research, which follows on the groundbreaking trade ministerial meeting on the margins of UNFCCC COP-13 in Indonesia (December 2007), will provide a solid platform for informed policy-making, most immediately in the lead- up to COP-15 in Copenhagen in 2009. As part of the project, IISD and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development will be co-ordinating a series of regional workshops in developing countries in April of 2009 to identify key developing country concerns and positions in the trade and climate change agenda.
Generous support for the project has been provided by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
Contents
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Copenhagen Meeting on Trade and Climate Change
Extensive background and summary materials from a June 2008 meeting in Copenhagen, designed to further the understanding of trade and climate change linkages. -
Bali Trade Ministerial on Trade and Climate Change
Materials from the pioneering Bali meeting of trade ministers on the margins of UNFCCC's COP-13 in December 2007. -
Outside Trade and Climate Change Work
A collection of various publications released outside of IISD, and therefore not available in the IISD Publications Database.
For more information on IISD's work in this area, please contact Aaron Cosbey.
Key Publication
Trade and Environment: A Resource Book
» IISD, 2007.IISD, in collaboration with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and The Ring, has released this publication as a means to shed light on some of the key themes in the trade and environment debate. Penned by 61 authors from 34 countries, this volume provides a blend of background information, expert commentaries and resources including a glossary, and a trade and environment timeline.
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