World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) Chair and Ecuador Ambassador José Valencia noted the power that trade policies could have over ecology-related world issues according to a press release published by the WTO on June 16.
“We must accept the potentially transformative power of trade and trade policies to tackle these three critical planetary concerns without further delay,” Valencia said, referring to the three following issues: promoting environmentally friendly technologies to reduce carbon emissions; reducing waste management, including that of plastic waste; and preserving wildlife by preventing illegal trafficking and encouraging sustainable agriculture.
During the fourth edition of the WTO's Trade and Environment Week, a panel of speakers stressed the importance of swift and collaborative utilization of trade policy to address the connected environmental issues of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. The event was comprised of 18 sessions focused on fostering collective approaches, as well as a CTE meeting highlighting the importance of addressing environmental issues within the trade framework.
“We all can confirm that integration of trade and environment is a process that will never end," said former Ecuador Environment Minister Yolanda Kakabadse. "It's a process that grows with the innovation of technology, of new interpretations of traditional models. It's also a result of the growing awareness we have of every process and what it means in terms of impact on the climate.”
"The old debate on trade and environment has been about trade-offs," said WTO Trade and Environment division director Aik Hoe Lim. "We need to go beyond that and in our World Trade Report last year, we tried to look at trade and climate change from the perspective of amplifiers or multipliers. We explored how trade can support, accelerate, and create new opportunities in building a new global economy based on environmental sustainability.”
United Nations (UN) Environment Programme resources and markets branch chief Elisa Tonda emphasized how trade policy and the WTO can be used to pursue environmental solutions in four areas: the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies; the promotion of sustainable agri-food systems decoupled from deforestation; the establishment of a circular economy for reusing waste, including plastics; and the fostering of multilateral dialogue.
“In the words of UN Secretary-General [António Guterres] at COP27 in Sharm el Sheik: ‘Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish'," Tonda said. "Trade is ultimately based on deep cooperation. It is critically important to recognize that trade networks, and indeed our whole economy, is bounded by nature."