Global action to address climate change is occurring at a time of momentous geopolitical, economic and environmental change. The twin challenges of climate change and energy security have sparked debate and raised several questions with respect to their links to the global trade agenda.

At the global level, trade liberalisation and climate change mitigation and adaptation are currently managed under separate and complex legal regimes. The UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol set binding targets for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) but do not mandate any specific policies and measures, thus leaving to countries the task of finding within the realm of their economic policies ways to reach their emissions reduction targets. In doing so, they must also abide by their commitments under the WTO agreements. WTO trade rules - through disciplines on subsidies, border measures, technical requirements, government procurement and taxes - to a great extent determine the options countries have to use economic and other regulatory tools. Therefore, it is also important for countries to actively pursue in trade negotiations the right to retain and expand the necessary policy space allowing them the flexibility to enact policy in support of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

At least three areas of the ongoing Doha negotiations provide an opening for countries to ensure that the multilateral trade rules support climate change policy. Subsidy reform, an essential liberalisation component in the Doha Round negotiations, will impact on support programmes in the energy sector. The current negotiations on agriculture could lead to restructuring of production globally, with associated changes in land use patterns. A reform of agricultural subsidies would also provide an opportunity to promote genuinely sustainable agricultural production and practices that could have positive effects on global carbon management. Other opportunities relate to negotiations on the accelerated liberalisation of environmental goods and services (EGS), which could lead to an expansion of the market for clean energies and other climate-friendly technologies.

Participants will explore the opportunities and challenges of advancing climate change objectives in the current Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations.