Geneva, 16 December 2021(TDI): At the launch event on the Ministerial Statements on Trade and Environmental Sustainability, Plastic Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastic Trade and Fossil Fuel subsidy reform held by the World Trade Organization for climate change.
There were important discussions that took forth in light of industrialization. One of the major developments that were discussed within the forum, was an agreement that there was a need for greater liberalization within world economies to increase the level of technological development.
This liberalism was specifically discussed in terms of trade so that there could be a decrease in carbon-based manufacturing. This was specifically brought forward by Coke Hamilton, who is the Executive Director of the International Trade Center. As it was reported in a tweet that was tweeted by her on the 16th of December:
🗨️”Liberalizing #trade in environmental goods and services will enable the faster deployment of technologies that reduce carbon intensity of manufacturing.”@CokeHamilton underlines the role of trade at the launch of @wto Ministerial Statements on trade & environment & #SustDev.
— International Trade Centre (ITC) (@ITCnews) December 16, 2021
Climate is already an alarming phenomenon within the international community. With the advent of the COP26 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) and the Glasgow Climate Change Conference, the issue has been at the forefront of all the topics discussed by diplomats, states, non-state actors as well as international organizations.
Coke Hamilton congratulated the World Trade Organization for setting up a forum where informal dialogue regarding trade and climate change can take place. She pointed out this was an important step to indicate states should take more important steps toward climate-centered trade policies.
She also further supported the fact that the International Trace center (ITC) had agreements with clients who were from small to medium-size enterprises (SMEs). This was a significant fact simply because it was these industries that faced the brunt of the climate changes happening within developing countries.
She believes with an increase in competition through liberal trade, SMEs can assist in developing strategies to fight climate change.
This was clearly evident in the GreenToCompete Youth Entrepreneur awards, where the competition showcased a groundbreaking 650 applications that had innovative ideas to formulate solutions for climate change as well as the ongoing crisis in biodiversity.
She stated, that there was a need for incentives to drive entrepreneurs in the direction of creating more climate-friendly innovations.
She referenced back to the agreements made with stakeholders at the Geneva Conference and stated the incentives were being provided to the stakeholder, all that was needed now was a movement toward implementing measures on the ground to improve impacts on the climate situation.
