Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
used its
advantages to design commercially oriented regulations for the
sector in the international trading system.
21
The Dutch government supports the Institute for Sustainable Trade to keep the
integrity of supply chains intact in states a
'
rst mover
'
s
climate security envoy regularly opined that one of the most feared climate security
risks is that the integrity of the global trading system will be compromised as states
hunker down into a protectionist survival mode. The UK
ected by climate instability. The UK
'
s 2011 Foresight report
laid more stress on the geo-economic dimensions of climate change than any other
previous o
'
cial document. Climate change would be likely to disrupt trade routes
and critical commercial infrastructure. The
ooding of major Asian ports, for exam-
ple, would seriously compromise the kind of global chains on which European
economies are now highly dependent. Climate-related losses for insurance companies
would hit the City especially hard, given its uniquely high exposure to global
nancial
linkages. The short-termism of European
nancial
institutions that was
revealed by the post-2008
nancial crisis could cost even more dearly in light of
climate-induced disasters.
23
The FCO
s climate unit has brought in trade expertise to
address this under-focused issue. The July 2013 UK National Adaptation programme
introduced a new and coordinated programme of investment, identifying
'
'
adaptation
as a niche area and fast-growing sector globally for UK companies.
24
The EU has supported the US in launching an inquiry in the WTO against
China in protest against its subsidies for domestic green technology producers. In
October 2010, the EU joined Japan in protests against Ontario
services
'
s Green Energy
Act, a scheme that guarantees prices for renewable energy as long as it is generated
with Canadian-made equipment. In 2011 Japan took this scheme to the WTO,
claiming that it gave an unfair advantage to domestic manufacturers; the EU again
protested in support. O
'
cials talk of the common security and defence policy
(CSDP) Atalanta anti-piracy mission o
the Horn of Africa as being a climate-
related geo-economic mission. The EU
s growing engagement with concerns over
Asian maritime security falls into the same category. More assertive action is driven
in part by the desire to keep trade routes open.
'
Autarchy as security?
The second and contrasting trend in European policies is a re
ex seeking to exempt
renewables and green industry from market rules. The strategic logic here re
ects the
routinely made prediction that climate change will usher in a gradual retraction from
global free markets. There is indeed evidence that at least some EU responses run con-
trary to market interdependence in an attempt to deal with the geopolitical uncertainties
of climate change. While the EU
s rhetoric is that of positive-sum market inter-
dependence, at least some European policies betray a more mercantile outlook.
'
