Agenda de l'environnement

description de l'évènement: Un Colloque aura lieu du mercredi 16 juin 2010, 10:00 au vendredi 18 juin 2010, 13:00 sur le thème : Climate change, trade and competitiveness: Issues for the WTO, à Genève (Suisse).

Programme du colloque Climate change, trade and competitiveness: Issues for the WTO :

Wednesday, 16th June, 2010, 10:00 to 19:30
Thursday, 17th June, 2010, 9:00 to 18:00
Friday, 18th June, 2010, 9:15 to 13:00

Conference Background :

In the absence of near-term agreement on globally binding emission targets in the wake of Copenhagen, nations will rely increasingly on nationally determined climate policies. As these policies vary in stringency, governments are likely to face political pressures to “level the playing field” – particularly in energy-intensive industries open to international competition.

This pressure has already produced industry support in a number of nations (e.g. free allowances of carbon permits) and could lead to the introduction of climate-related subsidies and tariffs in some nations. Such competitiveness-linked policies can distort trade – a fact that brings them into potential conflict with the WTO rulebook on subsidies and new tariffs.

Consequently, ‘climate-related tariffs and subsidies’ may pose challenges to the world trading system.

While the WTO has long experience in addressing such disputes, this experience typically concerns issues involving narrow economic sectors, or a narrow range of policies. Trade and climate conflicts would be different.

To the extent that climate policies are widely viewed as national imperatives, any WTO dispute-resolution decisions on trade and climate would engage a broad set of politically influential actors. Unless governments find political accommodation on the relationship between trade-related policies and climate policies, this could pose risks to the WTO, forcing nations to choose between respecting the WTO rulebook, on one hand, and maintaining political support for climate policies, on the other.

As world trade in goods, services, food, technology and energy will be decisive to global climate adaptation and mitigation, it is vital that governments do not allow climate-related trade conflicts to undermine support for the rules-based system.

Topics Include :

- The impact of climate change on trade patterns
- Climate linked policies, trade, and development
- The eco-legal interface between climate-linked tariffs and subsidies
- Practical issues related to the calculation of carbon content
- Economics aspects of climate-linked tariffs and subsidies (competitiveness and leakage Lessons from other International Environmental Agreements

This Conference is organised by the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI) in collaboration with the Economic Research and Statistics Division of the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization and the World Bank

Registration for this conference is mandatory for those without WTO accreditation. Those with WTO accreditation are also invited to register. Should you wish to attend, please send an email to: events@wto.org at the latest by Friday, 11th June 2010 c.o.b. with details of your name, position and affiliation. There is no charge for participation.

Admission to the conference Participants without WTO accreditation need to enter the WTO by the visitors entrance and bring a passport or identity card. Please be advised that the WTO Security Office cannot deliver badges for participants who register on the day or days of the conference. Only official ID/Passport are accepted as identification (student card or organization badge are not accepted). Please note that delivery of badges will start one hour before the conference.

World Trade Organization, Room CR, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1202 Genève