ICC policy statement on trade and climate change (2009)
Publication date : 23/02/2009 | Document Number : 103/291
As the world business organization and a representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) firmly believes that economic growth and open trade provide the best conditions in which to address key environmental challenges such as climate change. But while the global response to climate change can be strengthened by the right trade policies, the wrong ones can also weaken it.
ICC recommends that all governments:
- reject and avoid unilateral trade measures as a policy option to deal with climate change;
- ensure alignment and mutual compatibility between climate change and trade policies by developing climate change policies that promote sustainable development, while safeguarding an open and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and guaranteeing the integrity of WTO disciplines;
- eliminate trade barriers to environmental goods and services;
- ensure strong protection of intellectual property rights to facilitate diffusion of clean technologies and provide an incentive for innovation; and
- work cooperatively, including with business and civil society, to reach agreement on an effective post-2012 global framework that includes all major emitters to meet the challenge of climate change under the UNFCCC process , and that functions harmoniously with WTO rules and the multilateral trading system.
For further information, please contact
Andrea BACHER
Policy Manager, Economic Policy
Tel:
+33 (0)1 49 53 28 48
andrea.bacher@iccwbo.org