Towards a fair and strategic trade and climate policy

TOWARDS A FAIR AND STRATEGIC TRADE AND CLIMATE POLICY UK Climate and Trade Commission Policy Brief DECEMBER 2022 About the UK Climate and Trade Commission The UK Climate and Trade Commission is a short-term project established by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and the Trade Justice Movement (TJM) bringing together a group of experts to discuss the intersection between trade and climate cha. [...] Towards a fair and strategic trade and climate policy UK Climate and Trade Commission Policy Brief 2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADE AND CLIMATE CHANGE Given the urgency of the climate crisis, it is vital that policy makers understand the role that trade policy can play in both helping and hindering climate action. [...] (2020) ‘Can the UK Government be ‘World-Leading’ in Both Trade and Climate Policy?’ UK Trade Policy Observatory Briefing Paper and Economic Intelligence Unit and International Chamber of Commerce (2019) ‘Climate Change and Trade Agreements: Friends of Foes?’ Towards a fair and strategic trade and climate policy UK Climate and Trade Commission Policy Brief 3 . [...] The approach that the EU has taken – to develop a unilateral CBAM that extends EU carbon pricing to imports via a tax on the carbon content of a product at the border – is one of the most contentious policy areas in the trade and climate space at the moment. [...] While FTAs are one of the more enforceable trade policy instruments, due to the nature of the negotiating process and the breadth of competing issues covered they often lack depth and ambition in the areas of climate and the environment.