Climate, Trade and Water: A ‘Grand Coalition’?

The paper argues first that the climate, trade and water communities should leave aside their prejudices, and it provides clear evidence that the three communities confront the same vested interests when trying to solve their common problem of free riding. Then, it argues that such strong similarities speak in favour of "sister" world regimes in these three domains. These sister regimes should first share the key principles of non-discrimination (national treatment and most favored nation) embodied in the WTO. Second, by contrast, the climate and water communities should review the other WTO rules in order to adapt them to their specific demands when needed. Interestingly, when doing so, these two communities may provide much needed inspiration for improving some rules of the current trade regime. Finally, the climate and water regimes may also adopt provisions on pricing that are not needed by the trade regime which deals mostly with well functioning markets

Clean Energy Trade Governance: Reconciling Trade Liberalism and Climate Interventionism?

Scaling-up clean energy is vital to global efforts to address climate change. Promoting international trade in clean energy products (e.g. wind turbines, solar panels) can make an important contribution to this end through business and market expansion effects. If ratified, the landmark Paris COP21 Agreement will commit states to firmer climate actions, this necessarily requiring them to strengthen their promotion of clean energy technologies. Well over a hundred countries already have active policies in this area, many including industrial policy measures that impact on the international competitiveness of their clean energy sector. At the same time, governments have gradually liberalised their clean energy trade regimes, and large producers are negotiating an Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA). Clean energy trade is expanding and disputes among nations in this sector are growing. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) still has limited ‘policy space’ for climate action. Meanwhile, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) still had narrow and infrequent connections with trade matters. Moreover, WTO-UNFCCC engagement on trade-climate issues overall has been largely confined to information sharing and secretariat-level dialogue. This paper explores the extent to which clean energy trade is currently governed, where certain governance gaps and deficiencies exists, and argues why addressing them could help expand trade in clean energy products. It also contends that the most fundamental challenge for the future governance of clean energy trade concerns how to reconcile ramped-up interventionist climate action with an essentially liberal trade order