Download ii. the integrated approach and climate change

WORLD TRADE
TN/TE/W/74
23 November 2009
ORGANIZATION
(09-5826)
Original: Spanish
Committee on Trade and Environment
Special Session
THE DOHA ROUND AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Submission by Argentina
Paragraph 31(iii)
The following communication, dated 20 November 2009, is being circulated at the request of
the delegation of Argentina.
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I.
INTRODUCTION
1.
This communication is a contribution to the work taking place in the Committee on Trade and
Environment in Special Session (CTESS) pursuant to the mandate under paragraph 31(iii) of the Doha
Ministerial Declaration, whereby the Members are to hold negotiations, without prejudging their
outcome, on the reduction or, as appropriate, elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to
environmental goods and services.
2.
Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges faced by man. The WTO negotiations
to eliminate barriers to trade in environmental goods and services should therefore be aimed primarily
at facilitating access to goods and services that are used in climate change mitigation and adaptation
projects. This would help to reduce the costs of projects relating to action against climate change,
which might help to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent
anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
3.
In this regard, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy stated the following:
"There is no doubt that an immediate contribution that the WTO can make to the fight against
climate change is to indeed open markets to clean technology and services. The Doha Round
of trade negotiations offers an avenue for expanded access to products such as scrubbers, air
filters and energy management services … Launched within a broader context of the Doha
Round's environmental chapter, the negotiations on environmental goods and services could
deliver a double-win for some of our Members. A win for the environment and a win for
trade".1
4.
The 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,
which is to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009, will pave the way for a new regime on climate
1
Part of a speech made by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy at the Informal Trade Ministers
Dialogue on Climate Change held in Bali on 8-9 December 2007 (available at
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl83_e.htm).
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change. The work of the CTESS should therefore be aimed at establishing synergies between the
climate change regime and the multilateral trading system, so as to enhance mutual supportiveness
between trade liberalization objectives, environmental protection and sustainable development.
5.
Within this context, the purpose of the present communication is to develop the integrated
approach proposed in previous communications2, as the WTO's contribution to the climate change
challenge.
II.
THE INTEGRATED APPROACH AND CLIMATE CHANGE
6.
The adoption of an integrated approach would be an opportunity for the results of the Doha
Round to complement and support the objectives of the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, thereby encouraging the implementation of projects that use climate and energy friendly
goods and technologies.
7.
The integrated approach could help to combat climate change if, as a result of the
negotiations, the Members:
-
Agree at multilateral level on "categories" of environmental activities that are useful
in combating climate change, e.g. renewable energy (solar energy, wind power, etc.);
solid and hazardous waste management; and air pollution control3;
-
in accordance with these "categories", identify the climate change mitigation and
adaptation goods that could be used in national projects4; and
-
proceed to reduce/eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers, when the goods in question
are used in and for the duration of projects under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM).5 Such tariff reductions and/or elimination should
be bound by WTO Members, in accordance with the agreed level of reduction, taking
into account special and differential treatment. Such obligations may not be limited
by virtue of the commitments assumed under the WTO Agreement on Government
Procurement.
8.
The link between trade liberalization and CDM projects is outlined in the World Bank report
entitled "International Trade and Climate Change: Economic, Legal, and Institutional Perspectives",
which states that "it may be desirable from a climate change mitigation perspective for
2
Submission by Argentina TN/TE/W/62 and submission by Argentina and India JOB(07)/77.
This is consistent with the environmental categories and the benefits of the climate change mitigation
and adaptation goods identified in the room document presented by the WTO Secretariat on 10 November 2009
entitled "Examples of Environmental Goods, Rationale/Benefits, Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers Drawn from the
Presentations on the Various Sectors".
4
Such goods may include wind turbines, solar water heaters, biogas production tanks, and methane
collection liners.
5
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows the developed countries in Annex I of the Kyoto
Protocol to buy certified reductions of emissions generated by emission limitation projects in developing
countries not party to Annex I of the Protocol. Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol states that "The purpose of the
clean development mechanism shall be to assist Parties not included in Annex I in achieving sustainable
development and in contributing to the ultimate objective of the Convention, and to assist Parties included in
Annex I in achieving compliance with their quantified emission limitation and reduction commitments under
Article 3".
3
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WTO negotiators to grant priority for products, technologies, and services imported for projects
under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)".6
9.
This link has also been referred to by the WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, who noted
that, "The International Energy Agency has highlighted many trade barriers that stand in the way of
the Clean Development Mechanism. They include clean technologies that get stuck at the border, and
which do not reach CDM projects on time, either because of tariffs, non-tariff barriers, or
cumbersome customs procedures.
Let us join hands in addressing these barriers at the WTO. All the CDM issues that I have
mentioned are addressable through existing WTO rules and the current Doha mandate".7
10.
The proposal to link the integrated approach with CDM projects would have the following
benefits:
(i)
It would encourage the direct use of goods the environmental objectives of which are
climate change mitigation and adaptation, thus preventing dual or multiple usage and
ensuring that liberalization effectively contributes to climatic improvement and
sustainable development;
(ii)
it would help to reduce the costs of setting up CDM projects and promote the transfer
of technologies (e.g. those linked to renewable energy) to developing countries, thus
facilitating the development of such countries' domestic capacity in the sector;
(iii)
it would encourage public and private sectors to implement environmental projects,
with a view to enhancing sustainable development, particularly in developing
countries;
(iv)
existing national institutional capacities would be used to implement CDM projects
and projects would be adapted to each Member's situation in accordance with its
particular circumstances and local needs;
(v)
consistency with the Round's development objectives and with mutual supportiveness
between trade liberalization, environmental protection, and sustainable development.8
11.
It is also considered necessary to develop effective technology transfer mechanisms within
the WTO and to ensure special and differential treatment for developing countries in the
implementation of the integrated approach. These issues merit special attention and will therefore be
addressed in a follow-up communication.
6
World Bank, "International Trade and Climate Change: Economic, Legal, and Institutional
Perspectives", 2007, p. 91.
7
Speech made by the WTO Director-General on 2 November 2009 at Carleton University in Ottawa
(Canada) (available at http://workingserver/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl140_e.htm).
8
Note, in this regard, India's submission TN/TE/W/67, paragraph 6: " … Members are entitled to rely
upon the criteria relating to the end-uses of products in a given market, to that extent a product used for a
specific environmental purpose could be distinguished from the same products used for a different purpose
(reference can be made to the Border Tax Adjustment Report of the Working Party, adopted on
2 December 1970, BISD 18/S (1972) Para. 18)."
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III.
FINAL COMMENTS
12.
The Doha Round must contribute to tackling the issue of climate change by providing
balanced, environmentally significant, and useful overall results, which can be used as a development
tool for developing countries. In this respect, "sustainable development" must be the underlying
principle and logic guiding the current CTESS negotiations.
13.
The list approach favoured by some Members does not help to reduce the development gap
between countries or respect the balance that should be central to the negotiations, as, in such an
approach, the logic of liberalization prevails over the logic of environmental protection. In this
context, we believe that the proposal outlined above, centred on the relationship between the
integrated approach and the fight against climate change, could help to ensure progress in the
CTESS negotiations and demonstrate the WTO Membership's commitment to tackling one of the
most pressing challenges of our time - climate change.
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