Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Like other areas of climate security policy, however, this strand of deliberation
remains embryonic. One former minister admits that the EU has so far made little
progress on thinking what rules will be necessary to govern the distribution of new
technologies in a way that prevents the emergence of new geopolitical tensions.
The rules governing international trade in low carbon technology remain strikingly
undeveloped. The relationship remains deeply contested between free trade, on the
one hand, and the nurturing of green industries, on the other hand. Two inter-
related issues have attracted
should be
given preferential treatment within international deals. Second, the extent to which
domestic subsidies for green energy and technology should be allowed. At the end
of 2012, the US National Intelligence Council warned that a key transmitter of
climate tension is the persistent lack of an international framework for dealing with
export controls on food exports.
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Opposing e
erce debate. First, how far
'
green trade
'
ects exist. On the one hand, trade generates economic growth,
which is closely linked with increased energy use. On the other hand, open trade
should increase the availability and lower the cost of climate-friendly goods and
services; moreover, an increase in income levels brought about by free trade is
likely to lead the public to demand higher environmental standards. The World
Trade Organization (WTO) and UN have argued that the balance between these
negative and positive e
s level of development.
Researchers have suggested an Environmental Kuznets Curve. For countries with
low levels of per capita income, increased economic growth may initially lead to
a deterioration of environmental quality. Only once a certain income threshold
has been crossed do further increases in per capita income lead to gains in
environmental quality. Increases in income from trade liberalisation may not
necessarily translate into environmental improvements if the economic bene
ects depends on a country
'
ts
are not shared with a reasonable degree of equitability among the population. So,
international trade may become an important means of adaptation, but its e
ect is
likely to be context-speci
c.
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The lack of clear WTO rules relating to clean energy and technology has
increasingly complicated trade deals. Proposals to guarantee free trade in low
carbon goods is one of the issues stuck in the Doha trade round, but may be pur-
sued in the framework of bilateral trade agreements. So far, green trade has only
been broached within bilateral accords and no general international agreement has
been implemented, due to the complexity of reaching consensus among developed
and developing countries. The WTO itself admits that
'
The issue of climate
change, per se, is not part of the WTO
'
s on-going work programme and there are
no WTO rules speci
c to climate change.
'
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WTO members have the right to
adopt
trade-related measures to protect the environment. But the concept of
'
environmental protection
'
has not been taken to allow for the protection of green
