Climate Change and Trade: At the Intersection of Two International Legal Regimes

Abstract

This chapter examines substantive and institutional linkages between the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the World Trade Organization. It focuses on identifying potentially sensitive areas in their relationship, including sustainability requirements targeting processes and production methods, as well as measures targeting carbon leakage and competitiveness ­concerns. It also discusses institutional and doctrinal challenges related to fragmentation of international law and highlights problems that could arise if a climate change related dispute was considered by the WTO dispute settlement system. The chapter concludes that the trade and climate regimes are increasingly relevant for each other and that they are not necessarily rivals – both could benefit from identifying and promoting unexploited synergies between the two regimes. However, closer cooperation and institutional coordination may be needed in the future in order to avoid mutually unhelpful institutional and legal clashes.