Thursday, 10 October 2017- Geneva, Switzerland.
On October 10th, Steven Stone, Chief of the UN Environment’s Economics and Trade Branch, spoke at a workshop on “Making the International Trading System Work for Climate Change: Assessing the Options” organized by Climate Strategies in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation near Geneva. The workshop provided a platform for stakeholders from the climate and trade communities to discuss options related to border carbon adjustments and fossil fuel subsidies and, more generally, how to make the trading system more supportive of the climate change regime.
Alongside James Bacchus, former Chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization, Mr. Stone opened the workshop with a presentation on how trade can work for climate action, where he stressed the need to seize opportunities for an economy of tomorrow – that enhances prosperity while staying within planetary boundaries. Trade can play an important driving force in this process, such as facilitating access to and reduce costs of environmental goods and services. Mr. Stone further reminded that challenges remain and that we need to look at global pioneers, both in the private sector and governance, to overcome them. He closed with emphasizing the importance of the dialogue between the environment and trade communities, and the importance of workshops like this one in enabling such a dialogue.
The workshop provided an opportunity for Climate Strategies to present interim findings of their ongoing project in this area and solicit feedback from workshop participants, including policymakers and trade negotiators.
A discussion paper on the design of border carbon adjustments in a post-Paris world was presented by Michael Mehling, Deputy Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by responses from policymakers and feedback from the conference participants. Afterwards, Harro van Asselt and Cleo Verkuijl, both from the Stockholm Environment Institute, presented the work of the research group on the tackling of fossil fuel subsidies within the international trading system. Kasturi Das, Associate Professor of Economics and International Business at the Institute of Management Technology in Ghaziabad concluded the workshop with a presentation on how the international trading system could be made more supportive of the Paris Agreement, followed by a lively discussion and perspectives from different policymakers and trade negotiators, among others from the European Commission.
