WTO says impossible to achieve decarbonization without trade

It is impossible to achieve decarbonization goals without trade, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, told a session titled "Power of Cooperation: Joining Forces for Net Zero" organized within COP29 held in Baku, Report informs.

The event is being held jointly with the World Economic Forum.

The WTO official noted that trade should be central, open, and predictable in addressing climate change.

Furthermore, according to her, trade and climate policies should be aligned: "The idea that these two policies contradict each other is unacceptable to us. We feel that we need to align trade and climate policy to achieve our goals. Trade policies can prevent countries from accessing the 'green technologies' they need. During the pandemic, for example, we saw that people had access to finance but couldn't access vaccines because there were restrictive trade policies stopping their export. Countries can produce something, they can specialize in relatively greener ones," she added.

The WTO official also thanked Azerbaijan for organizing the COP29 event.