NO COMERCIEN CON EL CLIMA

The report contends that mega-regional trade agreements and the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework obstruct climate action by protecting fossil fuel interests and limiting the regulatory capacity of governments. It highlights the role of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in allowing corporations to sue governments over environmental protections. The document criticizes 'false solutions' like carbon trading and REDD+, advocating instead for a democratic economic approach based on local resources, agroecology, and corporate accountability.

• International trade and investment agreements prioritize corporate profits over environmental protections, which limits the ability of governments to support local renewable energy and allows companies to challenge environmental laws in secret tribunals.
• Industrial agribusiness is a major driver of climate change; while formal estimates place agriculture's contribution at 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, this figure rises to nearly 50% when including chemical inputs, transport, processing, storage, industrial livestock expansion, and associated deforestation.
• Mega-regional agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) are negotiated in secret and threaten to eliminate climate-essential measures, such as energy efficiency labeling or fossil fuel bans, by classifying them as 'trade obstacles'.
• The TTIP is expected to increase the trade of dirty fossil fuels, as the EU has requested more exports of coal, crude oil, petroleum derivatives, natural gas, and electricity from the US, potentially increasing fracking in the US and fossil fuel dependence in the EU.
• The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada is linked to a modification of the EU Fuel Quality Directive that removed the requirement for companies to report the carbon intensity of fuels, enabling the sale of Canadian oil sands in the EU.
• The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process, present in over 2,000 treaties, allows foreign investors to sue governments in closed courts over policies that affect profits, such as fracking moratoria in Canada or the cancellation of oil contracts in Ecuador.
• The World Trade Organization (WTO) hinders climate action through subsidy rules that restrict government support for national renewable energy transitions and intellectual property rules that increase the cost of low-carbon technologies.
• Carbon trading and REDD+ are characterized as 'false solutions' that benefit polluting companies and risk increasing conflicts over forest property rights or replacing forests with less efficient tree plantations.

APA

Hall, R., & Cossar-Gilbert, S. (n.d.). NO COMERCIEN CON EL CLIMA. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/foe-climate-trade-booklet-ES-web.pdf

Chicago

Hall, Ronnie, and Sam Cossar-Gilbert. NO COMERCIEN CON EL CLIMA. Friends of the Earth International, n.d. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/foe-climate-trade-booklet-ES-web.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hall |first1=Ronnie |last2=Cossar-Gilbert |first2=Sam |title=NO COMERCIEN CON EL CLIMA |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/foe-climate-trade-booklet-ES-web.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hallndcomercien, author = {Hall, Ronnie and Cossar-Gilbert, Sam}, title = {{NO COMERCIEN CON EL CLIMA}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/foe-climate-trade-booklet-ES-web.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }