[CTC] Working Group Declares Prevailing Trade Model "Incompatible" with Climate Change Goals

[Arthur Stamoulis]

HERE’S THE REPORT… HTTP://WWW.BU.EDU/PARDEE/2016/11/03/NEW-REPORT-TRADE-IN-THE-BALANCE-RECONCILING-TRADE-AND-CLIMATE-POLICY/


INSIDE US TRADE

WORKING GROUP DECLARES PREVAILING TRADE MODEL 'INCOMPATIBLE' WITH CLIMATE CHANGE GOALS

November 03, 2016
A working group of lawyers, economists, academics and others has concluded that the prevailing model for multinational trade and investment deals is “largely incompatible” with global climate change goals.
The “Working Group on Trade, Investment, and Climate Policy <https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/files/2016/11/Pardee-GEGI-TradeClimate-Nov2016.pdf>” – a collaboration between Boston University’s Global Economic Governance Initiative and the Georgetown University Law Center’s Harrison Institute for Public Law – compiled its findings in a new report calling for new rules that, at a minimum, ensure trade deals don't result in greater greenhouse gas emissions.
The group “finds that trade and investment treaties can be instruments to advance the global climate and development agenda, but that the prevailing model of trade and investment treaties is largely incompatible with the world’s broader climate goals,” the report states.
More:
The model rules for trade and investment treaties need to be redesigned with an overriding principle to reward climate-friendly modes of economic activity, curb activity that worsens climate change, and provide the proper policy space so that nation-states can adequately address the climate challenge. At the very minimum, the trade model should be adjusted in such a way that treaties do not result in net increases of greenhouse gas emissions.
The group also says “governments and civil societies” should ensure that:
1) The potential economic and regulatory-related climate impacts of current and proposed treaties be thoroughly analyzed across and inserted into trade and investment policy-making processes;
2) Model rules for trade and investment treaties be redesigned to reward climate friendly activity and curb economic activity that exacerbates climate change;
3) The governance of disputes under trade and investment treaties be reformed to ensure that foreign investors do not hold greater rights than nation-states over climate policy-making.
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