Climate

November 29, 2022 - Aik Hoe Lim

Trade and international trade cooperation as a tool for LDCs to adapt to climate change

LDCs need support to tackle the climate crisis to safeguard and further advance the hard-earned improvements in incomes, education and health achieved over the past decades. To successfully mitigate and adapt to climate change, LDCs have to address several challenges and strengthen their policy frameworks. Not only do they need to enhance the climate-resilience of their trade-related infrastructure but also to improve their digital connectivity. The latter will play a key role in addressing information asymmetries and broadening the reach of early warning systems.

November 22, 2022 - Sonam P. Wangdi

LDCs need to be rewarded for their low emissions through better trade deals

Countries with high environmental credentials like Bhutan should be supported to trade with an automatic recognition and prioritization of their exports as clean and green. This will be a big boost to build productive capacity and help increase climate and trade ambition.

November 15, 2022 - Sofía Baliño

Adapting to a Changing Climate: How Trade and Trade Policy Can Make a Difference

Along with the damage posed to ecosystem and human health, climate change is already affecting what and how countries trade with one another. For instance, changing temperatures and weather patterns have an impact on crop yields, and therefore agricultural trade. Climate change can cause severe and costly disruptions to trade-related infrastructure, as sea level rises threaten seaports and rising temperatures affect and degrade railways. Tourism is another sector that is both crucial for trade and where changing weather conditions are affecting where people travel and the infrastructure that tourism relies on.

November 08, 2022 - Ratnakar Adhikari

Aid for trade should be a catalyst for climate finance

While leveraging AFT to mobilize climate finance is an imperative for LDCs, this cannot be achieved without improved government-wide coordination, policy reforms to improve business environments, capacity building to attract and retain investment as well as contribution of resources and expertise to mobilize additional funding. Such an approach, while facilitating collective engagement to unleash the power of partnership, can make a difference to ensure that climate change adaptation and mitigation needs of LDCs are adequately funded.

November 01, 2022 - Daniel K. Kalinaki

In The Gambia, sustainable fishing a lifeline to economy under water

Improving productivity from the artisanal subsector, which provides the raw material for the industrial processing plants, will increase the amount of product available. Higher standards and value addition will increase the export earnings, employment and income for Gambians, and raise the fishing sector’s share of GDP. Doing it in a climate-smart manner will ensure that this growth is sustainable.

October 25, 2022 - Simon Hess and Marie-France Boucher

Climate adaptation: The case for Aid for Trade

On 30th and 31st July, almost 300 mm of rain fell on Banjul and the capital region[HS1] of The Gambia.

September 13, 2022 - Shamika Sirimanne and Ratnakar Adhikari

Vanuatu Shows How to Reduce Emissions Through Trade Facilitation

Vanuatu has emerged as a trailblazer in the Asia‑Pacific region in leveraging the benefits of trade facilitation through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) program. For over 40 years, ASYCUDA, which is UNCTAD’s largest technical assistance program, has helped customs offices around the world clear goods faster and increase the pace of trade. Vanuatu is one of only seven ASYCUDA countries worldwide, and the only one in the Pacific region, running a single-window system using ASYCUDA.

August 02, 2022 - Carolyn Deere Birkbeck

How can we harness aid for trade for a just transition to sustainable trade?

In 2022, WTO members have the opportunity to move forward on an aid for trade agenda that supports LDCs to tackle pressing challenges at the intersection of trade and sustainability. Given the massive trade-related challenges facing LDCs, the huge gap between needs and available support for a just transition to sustainable trade, and the urgency, scale, and impact of intersecting environmental crises in LDCs, mobilizing additional resources, investments, and partnerships is vital.

June 07, 2022 - Mahesh Sugathan

Plastic pollution: Can aid for trade help least developed countries tackle this crisis?

LDCs have to deal with millions of tonnes of plastic products imported each year, including products with embedded plastics and with associated plastic packaging.

May 03, 2022 - Shehnaaz Moosa and Ekhosuehi Iyahen

The world of finance is waking up to the reality of climate change, but money still isn’t getting to the right places

Trade is a critical part of on the ground adaptation efforts that must also be considered, specifically local trade amongst small and medium enterprises which are impacted head-on by climate emergencies. We are seeing communities already vulnerable to shocks affected not only in terms of their resources getting destroyed or depleted but also due to a lack of support systems when this happens.

March 29, 2022 - David Daepp, Darryl Ikbal and Daniel Kalinaki

Local markets in Tuvalu offer trade lifeline on sinking Island

Isolated, Tuvalu turned to improving its internal trade. In October 2020 the Department of Business, with support from the Enhanced Integrated Framework, (EIF) launched the Tau Maketi (your market) initiative to help vulnerable small businesses play a more active role in Tuvalu’s domestic market and make up for diminished foreign demand.

March 08, 2022 - Annette Ssemuwemba, Apurva Mudliar and Peter Donelan

Women play a key role in fighting climate change

Women are 14 times more likely to die from a climate disaster than men. Despite being face-to-face with the problem, women are often not part of the solution.

November 09, 2021 - Alexander Kasterine

Counting carbon in the food export business

Alexander Kasterine explores how climate change concerns are changing market requirements for developing country food exporters

November 02, 2021 - Marie-France Boucher and Darryl Ikbal Farshid

Turning waste into opportunity – Tuvalu's contribution to the circular economy

The saying one man's trash is another man's treasure has never been more apt for Tuvalu's first export. In June 2021, two shipping containers of crushed aluminium cans from Tuvalu headed towards South Korea. This marked a first in the country's commitment to the circular economy.

October 26, 2021 - Peter Donelan