Climate, Equity and Global Trade

Trade and Sustainable Energy Series Series • Selected Issue Brief 2

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The steadily growing volume of global trade is forcing policymakers to start taking a hard look at its climate impact, while keeping equity and development issues as top priority. The climate implications of export-led growth in emerging economies, the potential barriers that intellectual property may pose for access to clean technologies in developing countries, the possibility of carbon leakage between countries with stringent versus lax climate regulations, and the carbon footprint of the emerging trade opportunities in niche markets for low income countries are at the core of the debate. In the WTO, climate change concerns have also been explicitly referred to in the context of ongoing negotiations on environmental goods and services.