The Trade, Climate, and Development Triangle: A call to acti...

Europe Jacques Delors is thrilled to partner with the World Trade Organization for an event on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai. Join us on 8th December from 13:30 to 14:30h (UTC+4) at the Trade House Pavilion (full programme available here) for a high-level panel discussion, jointly organized with TradeMark Africa and the Government of Barbados (Office of the Prime Minister).  More details are available below - mark your calendars for an insightful dialogue on the trade-environment-development on the global stage. 

As countries worldwide adopt different approaches to greening trade, this panel explores the implications of these trends for development and strategies to empower developing countries with the necessary tools and skills to thrive in a changing global landscape. Zooming in on the trade-climate-development nexus, panelists will identify opportunities and challenges in the green trade agenda, highlighting the roles of governments, policy-makers, and civil society in shaping a more inclusive and climate-resilient global trading landscape.

This panel will focus on global fragmentation in approaches and its implications for developing countries, examining multilateral solutions through institutions like the WTO and how to leverage existing trade instruments to address emerging trade barriers. When exploring areas that warrant new approaches, panelist will debate the importance of empowering youth-driven entrepreneurship and boosting capacity-building efforts. In doing so, this session aims to identify development-friendly multilateral approaches to greening trade from long-term opportunities to “low-hanging fruits”.

Europe Jacques Delors' panel on the nexus between Trade, Climate and Development was a great opportunity to discuss a Call to Action!

Takeaways:

- Trade-related climate measures are crucial in accelerating climate change mitigation and adaptation. We must better take into account development considerations when designing and implementing these measures

- We need to provide capacity building to developing countries most impacted by specific policies - such as CBAM - to build local capacity and green their industries

- A nuanced approach based on countries historic contributions to climate change and technical and financial #capabilities is needed, based on the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities

- There is an urgent need for more climate finance! - An annual investment of $2.4 trillion is required by 2030 to address climate change mitigation in emerging markets and developing countries. This can only be a achieved with the restructure of the financial system as advocated by the Barbados-led Bridgetown initiative