Trade & The Climate Crisis

Climate Deception: Non-binding “Targets” for Climate, but Binding Rules on Trade in Services

4 December, 2015
The Huffington Post
The whole world is watching as world leaders from nearly every country across the globe meet in Paris this week to set carbon emission reductions targets to address global climate change. Unfortunately representatives of 50 of the same governments are also meeting this week in Geneva to negotiate binding rules that will seriously constrain countries’ ability to meet those targets.

TiSA (Trade in Services Agreement) could become a major obstacle for governments willing to switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy

4 December, 2016
UNI Global Union

The new leaked text of the Annexes on Energy and Environmental Services for the Trade in Services Agreement was published by Wikileaks on the 3rd of December. TiSA is being negotiated by 22 countries representing 70% of global trade behind closed doors in a secret room in Geneva while all eyes are on Paris where UN public talks are in full swing to design a new climate regime.

Global Civil Society letter on the Nairobi Ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO), December 9, 2015

9 December, 2015
As members of 453 civil society organizations including trade unions, environmentalists, farmers, development advocates, and public interest groups from over 150 countries, we are writing today to express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO. We urge you to take seriously the need for the upcoming Nairobi Ministerial to change existing WTO rules to make the global trading system more compatible with people-centered development, and to forestall efforts by some developed countries to abandon the development agenda and replace it with a set of so-called “new issues” that actually are non-trade issues that would impact deeply on domestic economies and constrain national policy space required for development and public interest.

Trade in Environmental Goods May Not Actually Be So Good

27 January, 2014
Huffington Post
On Jan. 25, a group of World Trade Organization (WTO) countries including the United States, the European Union, Australia, and Canada, launched a new set of negotiations to eliminate tariffs on a set of supposedly environmentally beneficial products. In this article Ilna Solomon of Siera Club argues that the initiative may actually harm the environment.

Global Turn Around!

1 April, 2010
2 April, 2010
A call to unite and confront the converging global crises of our times, replace the trade and investment pacts and related juggernauts of the corporate-driven global economy, and start building a sustainable economic future together.

Pronunciamiento de la ASC ante la nueva cumbre ministerial de la OMC

30 November, 2009
Alianza Social Continental

Entre el 30 de noviembre y el 2 de diciembre de 2009 se realizará en Ginebra la VII reunión ministerial de la OMC. Será un nuevo esfuerzo de reanudar las negociaciones de la Ronda de Doha, iniciada hace 8 años, y un escenario donde los países desarrollados nuevamente intentarán imponer su propia agenda de liberalización y desregulación de los mercados.

Biggest emitters fail to show the way forward

10 June, 2009
Financial Times

Kathrin Hille in Beijing and Edward Luce in Washington

China and the US failed to achieve a breakthrough at their latest round of
climate talks on Wednesday, raising the stakes in the global effort to fight
global climate change.

The two countries responsible for almost half of the world¹s greenhouse gas
emissions ended three days of negotiations in Beijing.

While there are still months to go until the December meeting in Copenhagen,
where 181 countries, led by the United Nations, plan to work out a new

Ken Saro-Wiwa: the day of truth?

20 May, 2009
Transnational Institute / The Guardian
It will send shockwaves through boardrooms if the predictions of the executed campaigner are proved right in a US court

Lula Calls on Saudis to Join Brazil in Creating Petrochemical Powerhouse

18 May, 2009
Brazzilmag
Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said this Sunday, May 17, at the end of a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia, that he called on king Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for the two countries to jointly seek reciprocal investment opportunities.

Chamber Fears Climate Talks Could Set the Stage for TRIPS Changes

15 May, 2009
Inside US Trade
Global climate change negotiations could become the battleground to hammer out a second clarification of intellectual property protection rules in the World Trade Organization to strengthen developing countries rights to use patented technology without authorization of rights holders, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Adapting the International Trade Regime to New Challenges: Climate Change

13 May, 2009
Tim Groser
But I am acutely conscious that this focus on the traditional agenda, appropriate though it is, should not obscure the vital need to refresh the mandate of the WTO to deal with tomorrow's problems. Here, the interface between the international trade agenda and the climate change agenda looms larger than any single issue.

EU raises stakes for US in biodiesel battle

5 March, 2009
Financial Times

The European Union is gearing up to slap duties on imported US biodiesel in the latest sign of rising trade tensions as world economies slump into
recession.

WTO Turnaround 2013: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Development First – Statement

After many failed Ministerial meetings and nearly twelve years of negotiations, the Doha Round of WTO expansion is at a crossroads. Developed countries have pushed aside agreements to negotiate on key developing country issues intended to correct the imbalances within the existing WTO, which formed the basis of the development mandate of Doha. Even worse, developed countries appear to be re-packaging the same liberalization and market access demands of their corporate interests to create a “new trade narrative” towards gaining agreements at the upcoming 9th Ministerial in Bali. In this statement with specific demands Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network asserts that in addition to a long-term transformation of the global trade and economic architecture, immediate changes must be made to WTO in order to provide countries more policy space to pursue a positive agenda for development and job-creation, food security, sustainable development, access to affordable healthcare and medicines, and global financial stability.

Change Trade, Not our Climate

One way or another change is on the way: if we don’t change the rules of the global economy we won’t be able to limit climate change.