Internationally agreed and administered rules are needed for both trade and climate change, as the actions of one country can damage the interests of others and because coordinated action can improve the outcomes for all. There is agreement for both on the need for differentiation between developed and developing countries. But suspicion and misunderstandings, combined with real differences in approach and technical difficulties, are serious obstacles to coordination. African horticultural exports are successes for trade diversification, but are seen as emblems for unsustainable consumption.

Researchers and negotiators will explore current issues and proposals:

Leo Peskett, ODI, carbon: What can current forest carbon proposals tell us about emerging trading schemes?Jodie Keane, ODI, Adapting to Climate Change and the Changing Global Trade Environment: How could and should Aid for Trade and Climate Change Finance work together?James MacGregor, IIED, Challenging free trade: Embodied carbon and the development agenda Vera Thorstensen, Mission of Brazil to WTO, WTO and Climate Change: conflicts between climate rules and trade rules – a developing country perspectiveDoaa Abdel Motaal, WTO, Comments on the presentations

This will introduce a discussion of two areas:

how to reconcile the different emphases in trade and climate change negotiations: country objectives, medium term gains, and settling the allocation by bargaining, or global welfare, the long term, and defining principles for allocation;technical implementation issues: how the trade and climate change regimes can adjust their rules to accommodate each other: different approaches to differentiation, compensation for the costs to LDCs and other developing countries of the costs of trade and climate change regimes, and differentiating among products and their origins.

To register for this event, please visit the Geneva Trade and Development Symposium Website.