From WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies to the reduction of tariffs and certification schemes for trade in forest products, trade policies have strong implications for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity around the globe. Similarly, talks on an international regime on access and benefit-sharing that are underway under the Convention on Biological Diversity could have an impact on existing multilateral trade rules. However, despite the common ground that has emerged in recent years in trade and biodiversity policy-making, a profusion of rhetoric and a lack of coherence has prevented each group of actors from fully realizing the importance of the others’ activities, resulting in little analysis, knowledge or information on the impact of multilateral trade rules on biodiversity and on how biodiversity policies impact on trade and poverty reduction. It is against this background that the Trade and Biodiversity Day seeks to identify and explore key issues at the trade and biodiversity nexus and provide inputs to the perceived lack of synergies between the two policy communities, thereby assuring that trade and biodiversity rules are mutually supportive and work together for sustainable development.

Specifically, the Trade and Biodiversity Day aims to:

• Improve understanding among the trade and biodiversity communities of how the pursuit of their respective goals and objectives might complement or hinder each other;
• Provide information, analysis and knowledge on the impact of multilateral trade rules on biodiversity and how biodiversity policies impact on trade and poverty reduction,
• Promote policy coherence in the multi-governmental fora, including the WTO, the CBD, and WIPO, especially with regards to negotiations on an international benefit-sharing regime;

• Explore the synergies between trade policy and biodiversity as it relates to sectoral themes, including agriculture, intellectual property, fisheries and climate change
• Share the outcomes of UNEP’s Trade and Biodiversity Initiative which assisted countries to assess the impact of trade liberalization on agricultural biodiversity.
• And facilitate synergies between trade and biodiversity policy-making that results in tools that are complementary to the objectives of both communities.

This important gathering will be held on March 26th, 2010 at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The individual sessions will bring together Geneva negotiators, international organisations, civil society and academia in an effort to foster interaction among policy makers involved in different fora, as well as with those influencing policy-making processes.

1. give an overview of COP15 and Trade Issues (including BCAs, technology, agriculture, international transportation, financing); and

2. focus on a) Transfer of technology and trade in climate-friendly goods;  b) domestic and regional climate policies in the absence of a global accord on targets.

Climate change forecasts suggest that the Caribbean is particularly vulnerable to the impact of global warming. Tourism and other key economic sectors such as fisheries and agriculture will be major impact-takers under climate change. To make those economies more resilient to climate change impacts and other exogenous shocks both mitigation and adaptation measures will have to be pursued in the tourism sector. Mitigation actions could reduce energy consumption by improving energy efficiency, increasing the use of renewable energy, and implementing carbon-offsetting strategies. Moreover, given the great interest and increasing demand for sustainable and eco-tourism, new business opportunities could emerge.

The present Issue Paper “Resilience Amidst Rising Tides” by Keron Niles, a Research Consultant, aims to deepen our understanding of the key mitigation and adaptation challenges the tourism sector faces in the Caribbean. Moreover, the study explores the issues at the interface of trade, climate change, and sustainable development of concern and interests to Caribbean countries, with a focus on the competitiveness of the tourism sector. Indeed, trade policy has an important role to play in this context. Niles argues that through the potential liberalisation of environmental goods and services (EGS), a few climate friendly technologies could be made available to decrease the Caribbean’s collective carbon footprint. Moreover, environmental services geared to reduce climate change vulnerability and foster resilience could be both imported and exported at the regional and international level.

Ultimately, the purpose of this paper is to foster an informed discussion among governments, private sector and civil society in order to search for plausible ways to address adaptation and mitigation challenges in the tourism sector and build resilience in the Caribbean.

Agriculture features as an important item on the agenda of climate change negotiations. The production and trade of food and agricultural products will be impacted by climate change, as well as by policy responses to climate change. The agricultural sector is not only of vital importance to many developing countries in terms of income generation, it is also responsible for providing the most basic need of people all over the globe.

As the global community aims to reach a new international climate change framework, it is also faced with pressing food security needs among the world’s poor. An increased understanding of the nexus between climate change, agriculture, food security and trade is required so that greater policy coherence can be attained at both the international and national level.

This specific Dialogue assessed the progress made during the COP 15 with respect to effectively addressing the issue of food security. Hereby the focus was placed on the subject of technology transfer and identifying research priorities.

Biofuels have been promoted as a potential source of renewable energy, growth and sustainability in the midst of multiple crises that are impacting development and trade flows. Many governments support biofuels investment and production as a way to reduce carbon emissions, increase energy security and create new markets for agricultural products. However, a number of concerns have been raised about unintended negative effects of biofuels production, including biodiversity loss, land conversion and food security issues.

The European Union seeks to be a leader in the area of biofuel development, using a broad range of measures, and specifically the Renewable Energy Directive, with the aim of optimizing the sustainable contribution of biofuels.

Concerns have been raised on some fronts as to the WTO compatibility of these EU policies, and the risk that they could be used as disguised protectionism. The debate is not settled, however. As such, ICTSD is pleased to invite you to this meeting, which is planned as an open and informal dialogue at which Fredrik Erixon, Director and co-founder of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), will present his new paper on the topic, and Geneva-based trade negotiators, civil society and the academic community can discuss the EU approach to biofuels, sustainability and WTO-compatibility issues.

We look forward to welcoming you at this Café & Croissant event.

The purpose of this publication is to deepen the understanding of policy-makers and other stakeholders of the major issues and challenges that least developed countries (LDCs), small and vulnerable economies (SVEs) and small island developing states (SIDS) face with respect to the interface between trade and climate change. Previous work in this field has focused largely in the concerns of developed countries and large developing countries such as Brazil, India and China. Yet, for small economies, the inter-relationship between trade and climate change is likely to have significant development implications.

LDCs, SVEs and SIDS are amongst the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Not only do many face amongst the most severe physical impacts from climate change - often in the form of too much water, or too little - but they also have economies that are particularly sensitive to climatic variation, since these are based in the natural environment and dominated by agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism. Furthermore, countries in this group are amongst the most open and trade-dependent economies in the world. Many are remote from major markets, being either island or landlocked countries, and face high transportation costs. They also face deep institutional and human resource capacity constraints in formulating and institutionalising effective pre-emptive and response measures to climate change and climate change policies.

The study that this book presents was carried out under the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development’s (ICTSD) Global Platform on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainable Energy. It was implemented by the Commonwealth Secretariat in response to the Lake Victoria Commonwealth Climate Change Action Plan, agreed by Commonwealth Heads of Government in Uganda in November 2007.

The study, in draft form, was considered at a Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on Trade and Climate Change: Key Issues for Developing Countries, which was held in Mauritius in September 2008. The meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of Mauritius and involved researchers involved in the project, regional bodies, the private sector and government officials from Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific. There was also strong representation from within Mauritius across a range of sectors. Some of the policy-oriented conclusions drawn out by the stakeholder dialogue are included in this volume. They indicated a rich programme of work that has still to be developed and implemented to address current development concerns of LDCs, SVEs and SIDS in respect to trade and climate change issues.

The papers in this volume comprehensively cover the trade and climate change concerns of LDCs, SVEs and SIDS, looking at the impact of climate change on key trade sectors, including agriculture, fisheries and tourism, and exploring the needs of these most vulnerable countries with respect to transport and access ro clean, efficient and renewable sources of energy for development, and technologies that will support more sustainable forms of production and livelihoods into the future.

The book highlights some of the most immediate concerns of LDCs, SVEs and SIDS in respect of trade and climate change issues, but the implication of the analysis this volume presents is also that there need to be a transformation of trade policy approaches, at the national and international levels, to support a diversification away from trade sectors that are highly vulnerable to climate change, and to better support economic competitiveness, low-carbon development and poverty reduction in the most vulnerable countries in the world.

In its recommendations to policymakers released in October, the ICTSD-IPC Platform on Climate Change, Agriculture and Trade emphasized that an open and equitable agricultural trade system is necessary to address both climate change and food security concerns. Yet, as this paper also argues, it would be unwise to rely solely on trade to help us adjust to climate change. Alongside ongoing efforts to maintain an open and equitable global food system, the international community must also importantly commit to sustained investment in agricultural productivity. We are pleased to release this paper, trusting that it will enhance the Platform’s efforts to increase understanding of the linkages between climate change, agricultural production, trade and food security, which in turn will yield greater policy coherence among these issues.

The EU has played a leading role in international efforts to combat climate change since the issue appeared on the agenda in the 1980s. The EU was the first party to commit to a stabilization target in 1990. It assumed the toughest target under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and it has made the most ambitious offer for Copenhagen with an autonomous target of 20 percent emission reductions by 2020, relative to the 1990 level, or 30 percent “provided that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable reductions and economically more advanced developing countries contribute adequately according to their responsibilities and respective capabilities.” The EU has also indicated a willingness to contribute between €2 and 15 billion annually to support adaptation and mitigation actions in developing countries, although the exact number is yet to be fixed by the Council.

The EU has emerged as a leader on climate change despite many obstacles. Collectively, the EU isresponsible for 13.8 percent of current emissions of greenhouse gases, with individual shares ranging from 0.01 to 2.8 percent. None of the Member States are large enough to influence the global emission trajectory in any significant way, nor is the EU as a collective, since global emissions are growing faster than what the EU can offset alone. The leadership is especially interesting in that Member States have veto power over key aspects of climate policy, including fiscal measures and energy policy. The EU cannot order Member States to phase out fossil fuels in favour of renewable energies, nor can the EU impose a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system without the agreement of all Member States.