Greening Aid for Trade
Pathways for a just and fair transition to sustainable trade
Greening Aid for Trade: Pathways for a just and fair transition to sustainable trade is an important element of the international cooperation and financing required to help governments, businesses, and citizens implement the economic transformations needed to achieve a greener global economy and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This report explains how, in playing this crucial role, Aid for Trade strategies could be shaped to ensure a just and fair transition for developing countries.
Addressing the urgent planetary crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution will require strong and durable efforts to harness trade and trade policy for sustainable development across its social, environmental, and economic dimensions. Aid for Trade (A4T) should be viewed as a vital part of the policy toolkit for trade and trade policies that advance sustainable development and respond to urgent environmental crises.
Greening A4T requires a nuanced approach that pursues simultaneous action through six complementary pathways underpinned by the sustainable development priorities of developing and least developed countries: mainstreaming environmental goals into A4T; securing new resources for environment-related A4T support; fostering coherence between A4T and broader global policy agendas; ensuring A4T monitoring captures the environmental purpose and impact of A4T projects; integrating trade considerations into climate and environment funding; and strengthening South–South cooperation. Investing in national processes in both developed and developing countries will be essential for integrated decision making and stakeholder consultation on the role of trade and trade policies in sustainable development—and the environment-related and A4T priorities that flow from these.
Funded by
You might also be interested in
IISD’s Best of 2025: Publications
As 2025 draws to a close, we’re revisiting our most downloaded publications of the year.
Data and Digital Trade Law
This policy primer provides a comprehensive overview of data governance in the digital economy: what it is, how different regulatory approaches are emerging, and why it is increasingly central to digital trade policy.
World Trade Organization 14th Ministerial Conference Outcomes: Wins, progress, and deal-breakers
Expectations going into the World Trade Organization’s 14th Ministerial Conference were light. The outcomes were even lighter.
Electronic Commerce and the World Trade Organization
This report provides an overview of multilateral and plurilateral e-commerce processes at the World Trade Organization (WTO), highlighting recent progress and upcoming decision points ahead of the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14), to equip policy-makers and negotiators with an up-to-date understanding of global digital trade governance.