Linking Energy, Climate Change and WTO Law: The Role of the WTO in the Energy and Climate Change Debate

Trade regimes have the potential to significantly help or hinder progress toward climate change goals. The need to incorporate climate change considerations into the trade regime begs serious questions of what can be achieved within present agreements and structures, and what changes may be required. The central role that energy plays in both climate change and trade has led to suggestions that the next World Trade Organization (WTO) round should be an “energy round. “

Both IISD and the World Trade Institute (WTI) in Bern have been working at the cutting edge of trade and climate change linkages and are completing major programs on those issues. Results from these programs will inform the Copenhagen negotiations—they also formed the basis for IISD and the WTI's June 12 workshop in Geneva. Including speakers from the WTO, the workshop addressed the links between climate change and trade liberalization, competitiveness leakage, and energy.

Presentations from the workshop, the program (PDF - 138 kb) and the list of participants are available for download. For reports from IISD's Trade and Climate Change program, see the draft background papers section of the Bali to Copenhagen project.

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