Trade and Climate Change: How can trade policy maximize developing countries' benefits from a clean energy transition?

According to the International Energy Agency's net-zero and sustainable development models, the power and transport sectors are the most important for reducing carbon emissions in the next two decades. The energy transition in each of these sectors will require strengthening existing value chains and supporting policies in developing countries.

In this webinar, we presented two new papers that look at these supporting policies in developing countries. A first presentation looked at the trade of raw materials of use for electric vehicles and highlight key lessons from cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and lithium in Chile, two of the most important producers and exporters of these respective materials worldwide. A second presentation assessed how trade policy can incentivize clean energy production in developing countries including through domestic production.

This is the first of two online sessions organized by the International Institute for Sustainable Development on the topic of Trade and Climate Change. The second session will take place on 27 July from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. CEST.

Agenda

Introductory remarks

Discussion

Electric Vehicles and Trade in Raw Materials
Richard Bridle, Senior Policy Advisor, IISD

Isabelle Ramdoo, Deputy Director, Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development

The Role of Trade Policy in the Production of Wind and Solar Energy Components
Christophe Bellmann, Senior Policy Advisor, IISD:

Brendan Vickers, Head of International Trade Policy, Commonwealth Secretariat

Q&A