Greening Aid for Trade

The document proposes six pathways to 'green' Aid for Trade (A4T), emphasizing that developing countries must lead the prioritization of resources to ensure a just transition. It highlights a significant gap between reported environment-related A4T and projects with clear environmental purposes, while calling for updated monitoring systems and increased financing to align trade policy with the UN SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

• Aid for Trade (A4T) represents a significant portion of development assistance, accounting for 23% of total official development assistance in 2019, with disbursements totaling USD 46.6 billion.
• There is a major discrepancy in how environment-related A4T is tracked; while some estimates suggest it reaches 25% to 40% of A4T, a preliminary OECD staff review indicates that fewer than 2% of projects have a clear environmental purpose.
• Developing countries emphasize that the transition to a green economy must follow the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, ensuring that the economic burden does not fall on the poorest economies and that green trade policies do not create unnecessary trade barriers or widen the technology gap.
• The document identifies six complementary pathways for greening A4T: mainstreaming environmental goals in planning, securing new and additional resources, fostering coherence with global policy agendas (like the SDGs), improving monitoring systems, integrating trade considerations into existing climate funding, and strengthening South–South cooperation.
• Specific priorities for environment-related A4T include scaling up sustainable exports, investing in climate-resilient trade infrastructure, tackling plastic pollution, and strengthening institutional linkages between trade and environment policy-making at the national level.
• To achieve a just transition, the author recommends that developing countries lead the coordination of A4T through national trade and sustainable development strategies, and suggests a high-level summit on Financing a Just Transition to Sustainable Trade in 2023.

APA

Birkbeck, C. D. (2022). Greening Aid for Trade. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-07/greening-aid-trade-brief.pdf

Chicago

Birkbeck, Carolyn Deere. Greening Aid for Trade. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2022. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-07/greening-aid-trade-brief.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Birkbeck |first1=Carolyn Deere |title=Greening Aid for Trade |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=1 July 2022 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-07/greening-aid-trade-brief.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{birkbeck2022greening, author = {Birkbeck, Carolyn Deere}, title = {{Greening Aid for Trade}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2022}, month = jul, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-07/greening-aid-trade-brief.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }