An Equitable Trade-Climate Agenda: Rewiring Systemic Policy, Governance and Knowledge Gaps for Equity

The document identifies a critical mismatch between World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and climate objectives, noting that existing trade frameworks do not recognize emissions as an organizing criterion and that intellectual property laws under the TRIPS Agreement hinder the diffusion of green technologies. It highlights a governance gap where climate-trade issues fall between the market-access focus of the WTO and the emissions-reduction focus of the UNFCCC, often leading to unilateral measures like the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Additionally, the report notes a knowledge gap regarding the distributional impacts of trade-climate measures on least developed and commodity-dependent countries, particularly in Africa where emissions measurements in land use and agriculture are uncertain. To ensure a just transition, the authors advocate for a multilateral approach that prioritizes development, structural transformation, and the treatment of climate technologies as global public goods.

• A significant policy gap exists because the multilateral trading system and WTO rules are based on 'like products' and do not account for process and production methods, making them unsuitable for a carbon-constrained world where policies are based on embedded emissions.
• Intellectual property regimes, specifically the TRIPS Agreement, prioritize monopoly protections over the rapid deployment of clean technologies, and the obligation for developed countries to promote technology transfer has seen weak implementation.
• A governance gap exists because the WTO (focused on trade liberalization and market access) and the UNFCCC (focused on climate action and emissions reduction) operate under different logics, leaving no unified multilateral space to address climate measures with trade effects.
• Unilateral actions, such as the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), are difficult to contest in current multilateral spaces, forcing countries toward fragmented bilateral bargaining and retaliatory logic.
• Knowledge gaps, including a lack of granular data on distributional consequences and technical uncertainties in measuring emissions—particularly in African land use and agriculture—risk allowing rule-making states to further marginalize countries with limited capacity.

APA

Manchishi, S., Dev, T., Goswami, A., & Avinashi, R. (2026). An Equitable Trade-Climate Agenda: Rewiring Systemic Policy, Governance and Knowledge Gaps for Equity. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs. https://tessforum.org/latest/an-equitable-trade-climate-agenda-rewiring-systemic-policy-governance-and-knowledge-gaps-for-equity

Chicago

Manchishi, Shimukunku, Trishant Dev, Avantika Goswami, and Rudrath Avinashi. An Equitable Trade-Climate Agenda: Rewiring Systemic Policy, Governance and Knowledge Gaps for Equity. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs, 2026. https://tessforum.org/latest/an-equitable-trade-climate-agenda-rewiring-systemic-policy-governance-and-knowledge-gaps-for-equity.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Manchishi |first1=Shimukunku |last2=Dev |first2=Trishant |last3=Goswami |first3=Avantika |last4=Avinashi |first4=Rudrath |title=An Equitable Trade-Climate Agenda: Rewiring Systemic Policy, Governance and Knowledge Gaps for Equity |publisher=Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs |date=17 April 2026 |url=https://tessforum.org/latest/an-equitable-trade-climate-agenda-rewiring-systemic-policy-governance-and-knowledge-gaps-for-equity |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{manchishi2026equitable, author = {Manchishi, Shimukunku and Dev, Trishant and Goswami, Avantika and Avinashi, Rudrath}, title = {{An Equitable Trade-Climate Agenda: Rewiring Systemic Policy, Governance and Knowledge Gaps for Equity}}, institution = {Forum on Trade, Environment, \& the SDGs}, year = {2026}, month = apr, url = {https://tessforum.org/latest/an-equitable-trade-climate-agenda-rewiring-systemic-policy-governance-and-knowledge-gaps-for-equity}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }