Trade ministers urged to boost climate action
World Trade Organisation (WTO) director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has welcomed trade ministers’ efforts and leadership to boost their actions to address climate change in their respective economies.
She made the call when she welcomed Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Morocco as the newest members at the second ministerial meeting the Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate held on the margins of the WTO’s 13th Ministerial Conference taking place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Said Okonjo-Iweala: “Nearly two years ago, at the previous summit, you all agreed that trade should play an important role in responding to global environmental challenges including climate change and natural disasters, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
“The pathways you have sketched have important synergies with work ongoing at the WTO.”
She said the efforts of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment to improve deliberations and those of the three environmental initiatives of WTO members, namely the dialogue on plastics pollution and environmentally sustainable plastics trade, the trade and environmental sustainability structured discussions and fossil fuel subsidies reform.
Said Okonjo-Iweala: “Many of you are already actively engaging in all these processes and acting through the WTO, we can amplify the impact of this coalition’s work.
“Now is the time to work together and build bridges with those WTO members not yet in the coalition. You can strengthen the WTO as a hub for transparency, knowledge, discussion and negotiation, trade policy reviews, and actions on trade in support of the climate.”
In an interview yesterday, Minister of Trade and Industry Sosten Gwengwe said Malawi remains an agriculture-based economy and that the country’s economic model has a huge bearing on production and in turn export trading.
“The Ministry of Trade as a facilitating ministry continues to work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources in ensuring that issues to do with climate change are tackled to minimise challenges that entrepreneurs might encounter in their trade endeavours,” he said.
Gwengwe also said his ministry was also working with development partners like the United Nations Development Programme and GIZ to encourage biodiversity, among women entrepreneurs, especially those in agriculture.
During the meeting, the coalition’s co-leads Ecuador, the European Union, Kenya and New Zealand reported on the group’s activities over its first year.
The Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate Change has among its objectives the fostering of international cooperation and collective action around climate action across relevant initiatives. n
JOSEPHINE SEMU PHUMISA is writing the stories in partnership with the WTO media team.
