OECD Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum 2024

en
fr

Session 1 - Leveraging trade in environmental goods to improve environmental outcomes

Oct 10, 2024 | 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Auditorium

Description

Trade and trade-related climate policies can help address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Trade in environmental goods (e.g. wind turbines and solar panels) plays a crucial role in the dissemination of technologies that address a wide range of environmental issues. Yet various barriers to trade in environmental goods (EGs) persist, including their identification, border and behind-the-border measures in the form of tariffs and non-tariff measures. This session will explore the evidence on the potential benefits of trade in EGs in enabling solutions to environmental concerns, and closing the material loop for a more circular, low-carbon economy. It will discuss the issues to be tackled to realise these benefits and ensure they are widely shared. It will also address questions around the design, implementation and effects of the use of trade-based measures that aim to encourage more sustainable production practices by restricting trade in unsustainably produced goods.

Presented by

Session 1 - Key resources

Trade and the circular economy

A case study of lithium-ion batteries

Affordable and sustainable lithium-ion batteries are key to the development of electric vehicles markets and to the green energy transition. Circular economy solutions for end-of-life batteries can help address primary inputs disruptions, while reducing environmental costs associated with the mining of these inputs or with battery production. Circular value chains would also help address waste and disposal problems as Li-ion batteries reach end of life.
Click here

Trade and the circular economy

A case study of the plastics value chain

Plastic products present several environmental, health, social and economic challenges that span from the extraction of raw materials to primary and final plastics production, to their distribution and use, and to the collection and sorting of plastic waste. International trade, which has facilitated the development of plastics supply chains, also comes with a range of challenges, such as a surge in demand for plastics ― notably in packaging ― difficulties to monitor plastics embedded in other products, and an increased risk of plastic waste leaking in countries that have less rigorous environmental regulations.
Click here

Trade and the circular economy

Securing reverse supply chains for a resource efficient and circular economy

Circular economy business models often rely on reverse supply chains and reverse logistics to close material loops, such as recycling waste and scrap into secondary raw materials, and extending product life by promoting direct reuse, repair, refurbishment and remanufacturing. Such activities can extend beyond borders and require the transboundary movement of end-of-life products to enable economies of scale. In this context, this report explores the opportunities and challenges for governments to facilitate cross-border reverse supply chains for a resource efficient and circular economy.
Click here

Trade and the circular economy

Policy alignment

Circular economy policies and initiatives largely take place domestically, and yet they have important interlinkages with international trade. This report explores how to make circular economy policies and trade policies mutually supportive by mapping out potential misalignments and identifying opportunities to align and strengthen both policy areas. The report highlights the various interlinkages between international trade and circular economy, and examines the interactions between trade and circular economy at the policy level, focussing on the multilateral trade regime and regional trade agreements, as well as specific policies to promote the circular economy, such as extended producer responsibility and product stewardship schemes, taxes and subsidies, green public procurement, environmental labelling schemes, and standards.
Click here

Trade as a channel for environmental technologies diffusion

The case of the wind turbine manufacturing industry

Only a small number of companies, located in a few countries, have specific technological expertise in wind turbine manufacturing. New quantitative analysis shows this expertise to be a significant driver of trade in wind turbines. Moreover, countries’ wind power generation efficiency is shown to depend on access to higher quality wind turbines available in international markets. Trade in wind turbines thus provides access to technologies with a level of efficiency that cannot be replicated domestically in importing countries. 
Click here

Production, international trade and export restrictions

Raw materials critical for the green transition 

The challenge of achieving net zero CO2 emissions will require a significant scaling up of production and international trade of several raw materials which are critical for transforming the global economy from one dominated by fossil fuels to one led by renewable energy technologies. This report provides a first joint assessment of data on production, international trade, and export restrictions on such critical raw materials from the OECD’s Inventory of Export Restrictions on Industrial Raw Materials covering the period 2009-2020. 
Click here

Climate change

International trade consequences of climate change

This report provides an analysis of how climate change damages may affect international trade in the coming decades and how international trade can help limit the costs of climate change. It analyses the impacts of climate change on trade considering both direct effects on infrastructure and transport routes and the indirect economic impacts resulting from changes in endowments and production. A qualitative analysis with a literature review is used to present the direct effects of climate change. The indirect impacts of climate change damages on trade are analysed with the OECD’s ENV-Linkages model, a dynamic computable general equilibrium model with global coverage and sector-specific international trade flows. By building on the analysis in the OECD (2015) report "The Economic Consequences of Climate Change", the modelling analysis presents a plausible scenario of future socioeconomic developments and climate damages, to shed light on the mechanisms at work in explaining how climate change will affect trade.
Click here

Economic drivers and environmental consequences

Global Material Resources Outlook to 2060

 This report presents global projections of materials use and their environmental consequences, providing a quantitative outlook to 2060 at the global, sectoral and regional levels for 61 different materials (biomass resources, fossil fuels, metals and non-metallic minerals). It explains the economic drivers determining the decoupling of economic growth and materials use, and assesses how the projected shifts in sectoral and regional economic activity influence the use of different materials. The projections include both primary and secondary materials, which provides a deeper understanding of what drives the synergies and trade-offs between extraction and recycling.
Click here

Explore Suggested Sessions