Climate Policy and Trade Rules

By Rebeca Grynspan, UNCTAD Secretary-General

United Nations agencies, small island nations and the trade community gather to take steps to ensure global trade policy changes and is angled to be part of the climate solution.

Climate change impacts pose huge risks to transportation, threatening global trade and development. Now is the time to adapt.

Trade is an unspoken element in the Paris Agreement, yet it will have broad impacts on climate change-focused nationally determined contributions.

With international shipping carrying more than 80% of world trade by volume, the international community must ensure that maritime transport responds to the challenges of climate change.

A Caribbean disaster risk management expert talks about preparing the region's airports and seaports for climate change effects like more frequent and stronger hurricanes.

Developing countries are the most vulnerable and the least prepared for the changing climate – but economic opportunities exist alongside the threats

The world needs to unhook prosperity from the extraction of resources if countries are to succeed in curbing carbon emissions, and that means keeping materials in the economy for longer.

The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, convened by UNCTAD and its partners, has unveiled a new plan to help bourses grow green finance and thereby contribute to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Efforts to curb carbon emissions will have sweeping impacts on trade, but commerce should be seen as part of the solution, not the problem, according to experts at the COP23 climate summit.