WTO | 2024 News items

Your Excellencies, dear colleagues, friends,

Thank you for the invitation from the Coalition of Trade Ministers for Climate. I am honored to be here today. Since its creation the WTO Secretariat has been working closely with the Coalition and its Friends.

Ladies and Gentlemen, five years ago trade was not part of the climate conversation and climate was absent to trade discussions at the WTO. We have covered a lot of ground since then.

Yesterday we held a trade, finance and investment (FIT) day here at COP in Baku, and supported the launch of the BICFIT initiative. We are operating a Trade and Investment House jointly with all other international organizations responsible for trade

The word climate has entered the WTO play book and our members are actively pursuing several tracks of discussions directly related to this question: how can trade policy better contribute to the objectives of the Paris agreement?

Along the way we have built a lot of knowledge about trade and climate interactions.

We have established that the global climate objectives for the planet will not be achieved without a properly functioning world trading system.

We have identified a broad array of trade policy tools that can be immediately leveraged to support climate objectives, through reducing anti-climate distortions and incentives and promoting the dissemination of pro-climate goods and services. Yesterday for instance the WTO DG made an inspiring plea for the reform of the 3 trillions of subsidies which are directly funding unsustainable economic patterns. The SG of UNCTAD reminded us that there is a global tariff bias favouring “brown” product over “green products”.

The WTO Secretariat for its part has published several research publications which provide concrete examples and suggestions for the design of trade policies that can directly be integrated into the design of the future NDCs from countries participating in the Paris Agreement. We also supported concrete actions from the private sector, such as the very promising steps undertaken by the global steel industry to promote convergence of their decarbonization standards and methodologies.

So the case for change has been built and the tools for change have been laid out. What remains to be done is use them.  We are at a pivotal moment for climate, trade and multilateralism and we know that we need to accelerate our efforts, with little time left if we are to remain under 1,5 degrees.

Some countries have already started to act. A recent booklet published by our Secretariat highlights cooperation initiated by groups of members:

• The Coalition and its 62 members is a very significant move:
• The Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS) concluded in July 2024 by Costa Rica, Iceland, New Zealand, and Switzerland, represents another;
• Bilateral agreement such as the Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement;
• The Global Biofuels Alliance with 25 countries and 12 organisations;
• Withing the WTO in particular, there are a number of avenues to advance trade in support of climate ambitions, such as the Trade And Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD), the Dialogue on Plastics Pollution, and the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform initiative.

The scale of the crisis, however, requires scaling-up responses from the trade community. We know the directions of the trip and what we have to deliver collectively as trade solutions:

• We need to foster interoperability and coherence in the design and implementation of trade related climate measures;
• We need to accelerate the deployment of green technologies, through trade policies, through promotion of investment and technology transfer, and with the support of capacity building and technical assistance, for example, through Aid for Trade.

To conclude, many warm thanks and congratulations to the Coalition for bringing us all together today, and the leadership of the co-Chairs. This Coalition of Trade Ministers for Climate can be the beating heart of trade for climate mobilisation.

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