Description | Programme | Participants

Description

This experts meeting is organized as part of ICTSD project "Making the Multilateral Trading System Supportive of the Transition to a Sustainable Energy Future - Fostering New and Innovative Solutions". The objectives of the meeting are to i) generate new knowledge in the area of interface between sustainable energy, climate change and international trade; ii) provide a forum for experts from the environment, energy, climate change and trade areas to interact and exchange views on ways and means of identifying and building synergies between the transition towards a sustainable energy future, the fight against climate change and international trade and investment regimes; and iii) build a constituency among these respective communities. The meeting is expected to bring together approximately 40 government officials, including Geneva-based delegates, private sector representatives, non-governmental, and inter-governmental experts and other stakeholders. Participants will discuss the geopolitics of energy in relation to the international trade regime, with an analysis of the WTO rules and agreements and their relevance to the energy sector; undertake a review and analysis of existing energy and climate standards with a view to operating a typology of such standards and examining opportunities for harmonisation at the international level; and examine in the format of a panel discussion how climate-friendly measures could be infused into international trade and investment regimes. Two think pieces - a paper on "The Political Economy of the Energy Transition: The WTO Rules and Agreements and their Relevance to the Energy Sector" and a paper on "Energy and Climate Standards: Benchmarking and Options for Harmonisation" - will serve as background papers for the meeting.