EU and Partners Launch Climate-Focused Trade Coalition
Today, the European Commission, EU Member States and 26 partner countries will launch the Coalition of Trade Ministers for Climate.
Today, the European Commission, EU Member States and 26 partner countries will launch the Coalition of Trade Ministers for Climate, the first global ministerial-level forum dedicated to trade, climate and sustainable development issues. . The coalition will support global actions to promote trade policies that can tackle climate change through local and global initiatives.
The coalition aspires to build partnerships between the trade community and climate transition actors to determine how trade policy can contribute to the fight against climate change. It will encourage trade and investment in goods, services and technologies that help to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
A key part of the coalition’s program is to identify ways in which trade policies can support the least developed and most vulnerable developing countries that face the greatest risks from climate change.
Ministers of trade from several regions with different income levels will join this high-level policy dialogue and civil society, business, international organizations, climate change communities and finance communities will collaborate also to the work of the coalition.
All interested countries can join the coalition, which so far brings together more than 50 ministers from 27 jurisdictions. The four lead countries in the coalition are Ecuador, the EU, Kenya and New Zealand. Other participating countries include Angola, Australia, Barbados, Cape Verde, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Iceland, Gambia, Japan (foreign trade), Republic of Korea, Maldives, Mozambique, Norway, Philippines, Rwanda, Zambia, Singapore, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Vanuatu.
The coalition will provide policy guidance and define trade-related strategies to adapt to changing climatic conditions and extreme weather conditions, for example through the production, dissemination, accessibility and adoption of climate-friendly technologies. weather. It will seek to find commercial solutions to the climate crisis, in compliance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, while supporting efforts in this area within the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Next Steps
The next ministerial meeting will be held on the sidelines of the next WTO ministerial conference scheduled for early 2024.
Context
The Climate Coalition was officially launched at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on 19 January 2022. It aims to identify ways in which trade and trade policy can usefully contribute to the fight against the current climate crisis. . It will be a forum for high-level political dialogue aimed at encouraging international cooperation on climate, trade and sustainable development.
This article is originally published on france.representation.ec.europa.eu
