Fostering Enhanced International Cooperation on Trade-Related Measures with Climate Objectives at the WTO: Coherence, Transparency, Development, and Interoperability

This briefing note by the Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS) examines the need for international cooperation on trade-related climate measures (trade-climate measures) within the World Trade Organization (WTO). It identifies a fragmented landscape of national and regional policies that create trade barriers and disadvantage developing countries. The document proposes a framework for cooperation across four levels: general principles of international law, regulatory processes and practices, specific design features, and technical aspects such as carbon accounting interoperability.

• The proliferation of uncoordinated trade-climate measures—including subsidies, border carbon adjustments, and standards—is creating a 'patchwork' of efforts that increases compliance costs for businesses and risks marginalizing developing countries in the transition to net zero.
• WTO members have identified four primary rationales for enhancing international cooperation on trade-climate measures: improving coherence to reduce regulatory fragmentation, fostering transparency in measure design and notification, addressing development and equity concerns, and supporting the interoperability of different systems.
• Cooperation can be structured across four levels of specificity: high-level principles of international law, shared regulatory processes and 'good regulatory practices', specific policy design features, and technical alignment of carbon measurement and reporting.
• Technical interoperability is critical to reducing business costs, particularly regarding the alignment of carbon accounting methodologies, sectoral definitions, and reporting templates to avoid costly administrative burdens.
• There is an emerging effort among WTO members to develop a soft law instrument or non-binding voluntary guidance on trade-climate measures ahead of the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14) in March 2026.

APA

Bellmann, C., Birkbeck, C. D., Ismail, Y., & Nyaga, B. K. (2025). Fostering Enhanced International Cooperation on Trade-Related Measures with Climate Objectives at the WTO: Coherence, Transparency, Development, and Interoperability. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs. https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Briefing-Note-Cooperation-on-Trade-Climate-Measures.pdf?dm=1758269685

Chicago

Bellmann, Christophe, Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Yasmin Ismail, and Brian Kelly Nyaga. Fostering Enhanced International Cooperation on Trade-Related Measures with Climate Objectives at the WTO: Coherence, Transparency, Development, and Interoperability. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs, 2025. https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Briefing-Note-Cooperation-on-Trade-Climate-Measures.pdf?dm=1758269685.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bellmann |first1=Christophe |last2=Birkbeck |first2=Carolyn Deere |last3=Ismail |first3=Yasmin |last4=Nyaga |first4=Brian Kelly |title=Fostering Enhanced International Cooperation on Trade-Related Measures with Climate Objectives at the WTO: Coherence, Transparency, Development, and Interoperability |publisher=Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs |date=September 2025 |url=https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Briefing-Note-Cooperation-on-Trade-Climate-Measures.pdf?dm=1758269685 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bellmann2025fostering, author = {Bellmann, Christophe and Birkbeck, Carolyn Deere and Ismail, Yasmin and Nyaga, Brian Kelly}, title = {{Fostering Enhanced International Cooperation on Trade-Related Measures with Climate Objectives at the WTO: Coherence, Transparency, Development, and Interoperability}}, institution = {Forum on Trade, Environment, \& the SDGs}, year = {2025}, month = sep, url = {https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Briefing-Note-Cooperation-on-Trade-Climate-Measures.pdf?dm=1758269685}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }