"Talking Trade" - Speech by UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner at the Trade and Development Symposium in Nairobi

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UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner was invited to speak at the Trade and Development Symposium (TDS) in Nairobi on 14 December 2015. The 2015 Trade and Development Symposium was organized alongside the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference and acted as a crucial platform for intellectual enquiry and dialogue on the future of the multilateral trading system

Trade, investment, finance and governance were recognized as important drivers of the 17 SDGs in several critical areas such as ensuring access to food, water and energy; managing sustainable consumption, production and waste; controlling natural resources and illegal trade; not to mention mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Achim Steiner:

“Excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, 2015 was quite a year!

Yet from the first UNEA at the UNEP HQ here in Nairobi to the agreement on the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development in New York and from the Climate Change Conference in Paris back to this event and the WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi - one big red line runs through them all. One thing that has really made this a historic year: acceptance that the solutions for sustainability have to come from the transition to an inclusive green economy driven by public policy, private sector and personal responsibility right across civil society.

Only if all three groups unite can we ensure that trade, investment, finance and governance will drive the 17 sustainable development goals in critical areas such as ensuring access to food, water and energy; managing sustainable consumption, production and waste; controlling natural resources and illegal trade; not to mention mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The foundations are there - Rio Principle 12 pushing to open trade and avoid protectionism; Agenda 21 promoting equitable multilateral trade; the Johannesburg Plan urging completion of WTO's Doha Declaration; and, of course, this summer's Addis Ababa commitment to integrate sustainable development into all aspects of global and regional trade, including subsidies, affordable medicines, value chains and equality.

In fact, look at the negotiations on the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA): 17 negotiating members (including the EU28), covering around 90 per cent of global trade in environmental goods, have reviewed over 600 categories to identify where they to reduce or eliminate trade tariffs and then apply them on most-favored nation basis. In line with the key aims of the Doha Development Agenda, it could further boost trade in environmental goods, which is currently worth around $1 trillion annually and expected to more than double by 2020.

We can also improve global market access for sustainably produced or certified goods: such as 450 million hectares of certified forest, up by 350 per cent in the last 15 years, or organic production that accounts for around $100 billion per year, up 78 per cent in just the last 5 years.

We can also hope that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will continue to show strong environmental stewardship trends, just as they open new trade and investment opportunities for development. Already, the TPP covers 40 per cent of global GDP and has an environment chapter with some of the strongest trade and environment provisions since NAFTA. While the TTIP covers 60 per cent of global GDP and is expected to make far reaching provisions on the environment and consumer protection. It is encouraging to see the environmental community's interest and awareness of these agreements, and the call for strong transparency and public participation in the negotiations.

That's the good news. But even for an optimist like me there is no escaping the challenges. Look at the trade distorting, while environmentally harmful, subsidies, for example in energy and fisheries. The International Monetary Fund estimates that post-tax energy subsidies in 2013 were close to $5 trillion, accounting for 6.5 per cent of global GDP and providing perverse incentives for unsustainable, carbon-centric consumption and production. Fisheries subsidies of more than $35 billion a year cause overfishing and degradation of marine ecosystems.

UNEP analysis shows that trade policy and particularly the World Trade Organization (WTO) could be key to reforming this situation and offering protection for the vulnerable. But trade policy is not automatically sustainable - it will require strong political resolution and coherent policy frameworks to ensure that benefits from trade liberalization do not come at expense of the environment. As WTO and regional negotiations to liberalize trade and investment continue, we can hope that states will continue to collectively bolster environmental cooperation and management commitments that also ensure more inclusive and sustainable economic outcomes.

Although some developing countries lack the capacity to develop frameworks and engage in trade negotiations, there is a huge potential for them to make trade work for sustainable development, to enhance their long term competitiveness and to strengthen their natural resource base.

Developing countries already account for about half of both global output and trade, with half of that coming from trade within and between those economies, or "South-South Trade" as it is often known. In fact, the South absorbed over half of all foreign direct investment in 2012 and accounted for over a third of outward investment. The UNEP report on South-South Trade in Renewable Energy points to the considerable potential for developing countries to benefit from enhanced trade, development and deployment of renewable energy technologies. The share of developing countries in global exports of renewable energy goods more than doubled from 2004 to 2011.

This explains why it is in all of our interests to help those countries negotiate trade, regulations and governance. It is also why UNEP is responding to these emerging opportunities and challenges with the creation of the Environment and Trade Hub, which I am pleased to be launching here today.

To create the Environment and Traded Hub, we have worked with a wide range of partners. The Hub offers a practical way for countries to address their individual capacity needs and unleash the power of trade to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Hub is looking at four key areas enhancing trade and investment in environmentally sound technology; aligning governance for trade, investment and environment; promoting sustainable consumption and production through greening global value chains; and reducing the footprint of trade.

Through the UNEP Finance Initiative and the Inquiry, UNEP is already working with hundreds of financial institutions and governments around the world to support the transition to the inclusive green economy, driven by both the public and private sector. Through the UNEP Trade work, several countries already get support to harness trade opportunities that arise from this transition. For example, we helped Ghana to analyze the country's solar export potential, including opportunities for climate mitigation and economic growth, such as manufacturing and job creation.

A grid-connected 100 MW solar plant in the North could save 40,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year and generate nearly $40 million in exports, while creating 3,000 direct jobs and supporting another 23,000 more. In cooperation with multiple stakeholders, UNEP continues its engagement in Ghana`s solar sector through a concrete investment proposal for a cross-border grid with Burkina Faso. And that's just one example, in just one sector, for just one country. We work with many countries in addressing similar cutting edge opportunities.

The Hub will build will help countries use trade to fuel sustainable development and environmental protection, in accordance with their national priorities. It will do so by sharing best practices, identifying new opportunities and providing training to design and implement trade and investment policies, along with the tools and methodologies to support them.

Combining UNEP's commitment to public and private partnerships with the Hub's potential to share experience, will not just unlock the true capabilities of developing countries - it will benefit every single one of us.

I think that is the most important message to get across when the WTO Conference kicks off tomorrow. This isn't about doing feel-good favors for developing nations. This is about solid, sustainable trade and economic growth that will deliver the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for the entire world.

So, we need to use the opportunity to build partnerships and launch concerted action for sustainable trade and development. As the first Ministerial Conference in Africa, this is a chance for the region shape the discussion and for the rest of us to learn. The world in 2015 has irrevocably changed - and it is now high time to align our trading markets and institutions with a robust and growing sustainability agenda that puts people and the environment at the center of economic development and prosperity.

Thank you.”

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