Major trade deals signed since 2025 are actively advancing climate cooperation, new tracker shows

The Trade & Climate Tracker is an online platform that provides the first global mapping of climate and clean energy components present in the most recent trade and economic cooperation agreements. The first findings highlight a significant trend: trade deals are evolving from simple tariff liberalizations into tools of global climate cooperation, helping countries to actively accelerate the green transition.

Key Findings

• Trade deals are actively advancing climate cooperation: Climate cooperation is mentioned explicitly in 59% of recent trade agreements whose texts are public; 41% of texts highlight cooperation on emissions reduction, and just over half include provisions on deforestation. Not all deals are climate-driven, but could still provide climate benefits.
• Cooperation on critical raw materials is growing and is increasingly detailed: just over half (54%) of the agreements analyzed cover CRMs, whether to secure access to minerals or to strengthen supply chains. The US agreements with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cambodia are good examples of the former, focused on securing access to minerals, while others like the EU–South Africa CTIP the EU–Mercosur interim trade agreement, and the Australia–US partnership all refer to strengthening supply chains.
• Energy is a key priority: 67% of texts include provisions on energy cooperation, including on energy efficiency and infrastructure, like grids. Renewable energy cooperation appears in 37% of agreements, with the European Union having signed the greatest number of deals in this area, followed by India.
• An expanding range of governments are incorporating climate elements in their trade agreements:
  • The European Union has been the most active in negotiating provisions related to emissions reduction, heavy industry decarbonization, and circularity;
  • India’s 6 agreements since the start of 2025 include four Free Trade Agreements, with landmark deals with the UK and the EU setting out broad commitments for cooperation, including on renewable energy, emissions reduction, deforestation and governing global carbon pricing.
  • The European Free Trade Association, the intergovernmental organization of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, has signed five FTAs since the beginning of 2025, each recognizing trade and investment as tools for the low carbon transition and sustainable forestry.

These findings demonstrate that national economic priorities—such as security and resilience—are increasingly converging with global climate goals.
 

“Governments realize that growth and development in the 21st century will be based on low-carbon, climate-resilient economies. The Tracker makes this shift visible, allowing us to see how countries are using economic agreements to build the global green markets of the future.”

Alice Tipping, Director, Trade and Sustainable Development

As traditional geopolitical alliances continue to shift and countries rush to secure new trade deals with different partners, the Trade & Climate Tracker provides a clear overview of the macro trends that are emerging. The platform will be regularly updated to provide ongoing snapshots of this evolving landscape. 

About the Trade & Climate Tracker

The Trade & Climate Tracker maps how recent bilateral and plurilateral economic agreements address the green transition.

The Tracker includes all deals announced since 1 January 2025, regardless of climate-related content: FTAs, economic cooperation agreements, MoUs and Memorandum of Cooperations, CRM frameworks, and similar instruments — binding or not. Sub-national deals, digital economy agreements, and instruments not primarily about trade or economic cooperation are excluded.

Provisions are coded across four substantive areas — Energy, Climate, Critical Raw Materials, and Heavy Industry, each divided into analytical subtopics.
A provision is coded only when it contains substantive operative content and may fall under more than one topic when it genuinely addresses several.

The coding process combines AI-assisted extraction with expert verification. AI was used to identify candidate provisions, draft summaries, and propose references, but the expert coder remained responsible for validating every coding decision against the agreement text.

Each entry records what an agreement provides, establishes, permits, or commits parties to do on a coded topic, with reference to the source text. The Tracker also flags notable tariff and market-access treatment relevant to those topics. It does not measure implementation, legal effect, or environmental impact, and is not a substitute for the authoritative agreement text.

Each entry is reviewed independently. Coding decisions are derived only from the text under review, including annexes, schedules, protocols, appendices, side letters, attachments, and tariff schedules where available.