COP 30 key issues: trade and climate agenda

The document examines how trade tools like border carbon adjustments (BCAs) and deforestation-free regulations are being used to advance climate goals and prevent carbon leakage. It highlights the administrative challenges of BCAs, the risk of excluding smallholders in deforestation-free supply chains, and the potential for these measures to clash with the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC). The authors argue for greater transparency, support for developing countries, and harmonized standards to ensure the energy transition does not deepen global inequities.

• Border carbon adjustments (BCAs) are designed to prevent carbon leakage, which occurs when production shifts to countries with less stringent climate regulations. Research indicates that for every 100 tonnes of CO₂ reduced domestically, between 13 and 25 tonnes may reappear in other locations.
• The implementation of BCAs faces significant administrative and design hurdles, including the need for product-level emissions data and the challenge of ensuring interoperability between different national systems to avoid a fragmented regulatory landscape.
• BCAs are criticized for potentially violating the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) because they often apply uniform standards to all trading partners regardless of their historical emissions or capacity to mitigate.
• Trade-related measures to curb deforestation, such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation, risk marginalizing smallholders who lack the financial and technical resources to meet strict verification and traceability requirements.
• The authors propose three priorities for COP 30: increasing transparency and dialogue on climate-trade measures, providing financial and technical support for developing countries to adapt to new requirements, and creating cooperative frameworks to harmonize standards.

APA

Baršauskaitė, I., Bonnet, A., & Sarmiento, F. (2025). COP 30 key issues: trade and climate agenda. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/articles/explainer/cop-30-key-issues-trade-and-climate-agenda

Chicago

Baršauskaitė, Ieva, Antoine Bonnet, and Florencia Sarmiento. COP 30 key issues: trade and climate agenda. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2025. https://www.iisd.org/articles/explainer/cop-30-key-issues-trade-and-climate-agenda.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Baršauskaitė |first1=Ieva |last2=Bonnet |first2=Antoine |last3=Sarmiento |first3=Florencia |title=COP 30 key issues: trade and climate agenda |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=4 November 2025 |url=https://www.iisd.org/articles/explainer/cop-30-key-issues-trade-and-climate-agenda |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{barauskait2025cop, author = {Baršauskaitė, Ieva and Bonnet, Antoine and Sarmiento, Florencia}, title = {{COP 30 key issues: trade and climate agenda}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2025}, month = nov, url = {https://www.iisd.org/articles/explainer/cop-30-key-issues-trade-and-climate-agenda}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }