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

The document examines the proliferation of trade-climate measures and the resulting risks of trade barriers and disadvantages for developing countries. It proposes a multi-level approach to cooperation at the WTO, ranging from high-level legal principles and good regulatory practices to specific design features and technical interoperability of carbon accounting.

• The lack of coordination in trade-climate measures is creating a fragmented landscape of national and regional efforts, which 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, fostering transparency, addressing development considerations, and supporting the interoperability and equivalence of measures.
• Cooperation can be structured across four levels of specificity: general principles of international law, regulatory processes and practices, specific design features of measures, and technical aspects such as carbon accounting.
• Technical interoperability is critical to reducing administrative burdens, particularly regarding the alignment of carbon accounting methodologies, sectoral definitions, and reporting procedures.
• There is an emerging effort among WTO members to develop non-binding, voluntary guidance for the design and implementation of trade-climate measures to minimize trade frictions while achieving climate goals, potentially as an outcome for 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} }