“We need to profoundly change how we produce and consume things if we want our children to have a sustainable, peaceful and comfortable life in 50 years’ time,” said WTO deputy director-general Zhang Xiangchen.
The WTO traditionally reaches agreements by consensus, and some of its 164 members form groups on various issues to try and find ways forward – with climate change being no exception.
Several dozen WTO member countries pledged in late December to intensify discussions on plastic pollution, fossil fuel subsidies and environmentally sustainable trade, in a move hailed as historic by Okonjo-Iweala.
FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES ‘INSANE’
Australia’s WTO ambassador George Mina, who co-chairs the Informal Dialogue on Plastics Pollution, said 72 countries were now on board.
Mina said countries had failed to tackle major environmental problems through the WTO, but in recent months, “we’ve seen a significant elevation in the profile, energy and focus” on such issues.
“Trade policy has to be a part of the solution on the environment and climate change response,” he said.
Co-chair Li Chenggang, China’s WTO ambassador, added: “Plastic is an important basic raw material but the leakage of plastic waste in the natural environment has brought environmental pollution and harm.”
At a press conference on fossil fuel subsidies, Iceland’s Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun R Gylfadottir said renewable energy was “good business”, making economic and environmental sense.
“The fact that global subsidies for fossils fuels exceed those for renewable energy should come as a wake-up call for all of us,” she said.
Meanwhile New Zealand’s trade minister Damien O’Connor said subsidies at a time when countries needed to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels “seems somewhat contradictory, if not insane”.
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