Trade Policy in Support of Climate Change Adaptation: Sharing results from a research collaboration in Viet Nam and the Pacific

About the Event  

Climate change is already disrupting agricultural production, coastlines, and livelihoods that trade-dependent economies rely on. Trade plays a role in building resilience to these impacts; yet, despite growing recognition of this link, adaptation has remained largely peripheral in trade policy-making, overshadowed by a focus on mitigation.

This webinar shared results from Trade Policy for Climate Resilience, an IISD research collaboration running from January 2024 to December 2026 that examines how trade policy can support climate change adaptation in Viet Nam and the Pacific. Drawing on 54 interviews and four workshops conducted across eight provinces in Viet Nam, the project maps the goods and services countries need to adapt to climate impacts in agriculture, identifies the trade barriers standing in the way of accessing them, and sets out recommendations for governments, trade negotiators, and development partners.

Speakers presented headline findings, including why non-tariff measures—not tariffs—are the primary barrier to adaptation goods in Viet Nam, and why barriers to adaptation services, such as restrictions on the mobility of technical experts and data localization requirements, are equally significant. The session also examined trade barriers facing adaptation goods and services in Pacific Island countries and the regional trade policy opportunities this creates.

The webinar closed with an open discussion on how the trade and climate adaptation policy communities can work more closely, including how developing countries can better leverage bilateral and regional trade agreements to facilitate access to adaptation technologies and what role South–South cooperation can play.  

Panel

Moderator:

• Ieva Baršauskaitė, Lead, Trade and Green Transition, IISD

Welcome remarks:

• Anne Hammill, Associate Vice-President, Resilience, IISD
• Shannon White, Director, Multilateral Economic Cooperation, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)

Speakers:

• Ambassador Merewalesi Falemaka, Permanent Representative to the Permanent Delegation of the Pacific Islands Forum to the World Trade Organization
• Nga Tran Thi Thanh, Head, Adaptation Division, Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE), Viet Nam
• Katharina Schmidt, Policy Advisor, Climate Change Adaptation, IISD

The Trade Policy for Climate Resilience in the Indo-Pacific project is supported by the Australian Government and implemented by IISD.