Official project name: Trade and climate change: Policy and economic implications for South Africa
Client: Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town
Funder: Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town
Duration: 2010-2011
Summary
Climate and trade issues lie at the intersection of two of the world’s most contested, delayed and important multilateral negotiations: climate change, under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and international trade, as regulated by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In August 2010, TIPS was commissioned by the Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town, under their Mitigation Action Plans and Scenarios (MAPS) project, to complete a scoping assessment of the inter-relationship between international trade and climate change negotiations as it affects policy-development in South Africa.
The paper highlights two key variants of measures which pose a challenge to both these negotiations, specifically border carbon adjustments and the liberalisation of trade in environmental goods and services.
The findings of the study were presented by TIPS to the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) Group meeting under the auspices of the UNFCCC in Tianjin, China in October 2010.