KAS and E3G invite you to the Forum on Climate, Trade and Development, discussing opportunities for the Global South.
Watch the event recording
Key takeaways: Global South, New Fair Deal, Climate Change
- We are in a decisive decade, where the need for renewed global cooperation overlaps with the risk of a global recession. There is a need for a new approach to global cooperation, to create renewed trust and to deepen the dialogue on principles.
- We need to prevent a new era of poverty which is both an individual and a country-level challenge. Sustainable development needs to focus on the opportunity for development, including market access, technology transfer and promoting the trade in green goods and services.
- The common but differentiated responsibilities principle needs to be translated from climate into the trade space. Not everybody can and should apply the same price on carbon or apply the same set of climate policies.
- It is important to prevent a protectionist spiral and focus on global cooperation and positive measures. Carbon Border Adjustments need to support development while sectoral deals such as on steel and aluminum provide an opportunity to reshape the trade regime.
Event summary – Opportunities for the Global South
When we conceived this session, our thinking was that the current rulebook does not deliver, neither on climate, nor on trade and development. But what to propose? What are the root issues we need to tackle? And who should take this on?
Today, more finance flows from South to North than the other way, despite the dire need to catch up in terms of health, education, and other public goods – such as human rights including gender equality, rule-of-law, democracy, personal safety, food security, energy access and climate security, to name just some.
Many of these goods are interlinked and correlated, so looking at them individually yields sub-par results and can even lead to counterproductive outcomes.
The past decades have yielded progress across a number of sustainable development indicators in many regions, but not enough to put attaining the SDGs in range. The Pandemic has produced significant setbacks and current and future impacts of climate change risk aggravating the situation.
Public funding through concessional loans and grants is an important part of the solution but can by no means bridge the investment gap on its own. The private sector needs to step up and deliver on climate-aligned trade and investment for development, both with a view to the 2030 SDGs and beyond.
We start to question that simply more of the same won’t be able to deliver on this massive global challenge.
Our hypothesis is that only a New Fair Deal can deliver in a holistic manner, a New Fair Deal that restructures the relationship between North and South, between anthroposphere and ecosphere, between today and tomorrow.
Rewatch this conversation with Clara Brandi and Charra Tesfaye Terfassa, including opening remarks by Paul Linnarz and closing commentary by Claire Healy.
Speakers
- Paul Linnarz, Director, KAS Office USA
- Dr. Clara Brandi, Head of Program at German Development Institute (Germany)
- Charra Tesfaye Terfassa, Senior Associate at E3G
- Clare Healy, Director Washington DC Office, E3G
