WTO reforms, sustainable development and climate clubs: calls for new thinking

Abstract

This commentary engages the International Bar Association's analysis of possible World Trade Organization (WTO) reforms toward mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. I suggest that the IBA's six recommendations could be advanced by the shared allegiance of the IBA and WTO to the notion of sustainable development. I trace key parts of the history of this term, beginning with its original conceptual formulation in the UN-sponsored 1987 Brundtland Report in order to recover its core principles: intergenerational equity, the inseparability of the environment and development, and a focused concern for the poor. I contend that Pope Francis’ concept of integral ecology enriches our understanding of – and commitment to – this widely shared term. Finally, I examine William Nordhaus’ notion of the climate club concept in relation to the IBA's call for a ‘standalone environmental or climate change agreement within the framework of the WTO’.¹

1 International Bar Association, Achieving Justice and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Disruption (IBA 2014) 30–31.

Notes

1 International Bar Association, Achieving Justice and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Disruption (IBA 2014) 30–31.

2 Ibid, 30–31.

3 William Nordhaus is an economist at Yale University and current president of the American Economic Association. He has written extensively about climate change issues for more than four decades.

4 A video of his presentation is available at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/DBASSE_089107 accessed 13 October 2015.

5 Available at www.papalencyclicals.net/ accessed 7 July 2015. In what follows, citations to Laudato Si’ shall be denoted as, for example, LS [96], where [96] refers to paragraph 96 in the document.

6 Documents are available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/summit accessed 19 October 2015.

7 These goals were endorsed ‘by heads of state from 149 countries and high-ranking officials from other 40 other countries’ at the UN Millennium Summit held in September 2000. See www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/millennium_summit.shtml accessed 30 October 2015.

8 See ‘The History of Sustainable Development in the United Nations’ http://www.uncsd2012.org/history.html accessed 25 October 2015.

9 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf accessed 13 October 2015. Hereinafter, cited as OCF.

10 See IBA Report (n 1) 69.

11 OCF (n 9) 41.

12 OCF (n 9) 7. In particular, this inseparability is emphasised with respect to international trade: ‘Two conditions must be satisfied before international economic exchanges can become beneficial for all involved. The sustainability of ecosystems on which the global economy depends must be guaranteed’, OFC (n 9) 61.

13 For example, see OCF (n 9) 8, 35 and 45, respectively.

14 IBA report (n 1) 47.

15 Ibid, 2.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid, 4. Climate change is clearly a primary concern for low-lying island nations in the Pacific Ocean.

18 Available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf accessed 13 October 2015.

19 Available at http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/environmental.development.rio.declaration.1992/portrait.a4.pdf accessed 12 October 2015.

20 ‘Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development’, 14 www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/WSSD_PlanImpl.pdf accessed 19 October 2015.

21 John Drexhage and Deborah Murphy, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), ‘Sustainable Development: From Brundtland to Rio 2012’ (background paper prepared for consideration by the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability at its first meeting, 19 September 2010, United Nations Headquarters, New York), 16, 17, 2 www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/climatechange/shared/gsp/docs/GSP1-6_Background%20on%20Sustainable%20Devt.pdf accessed 19 October 2015.

22 Available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/2006future.pdf accessed 21 October 2015.

23 Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/analytic_index_e/wto_agree_01_e.htm accessed 14 October 2015.

24 World Trade Organization, ‘Environment: Issues: Sustainable Development’ www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/sust_dev_e.htm accessed 23 October 2015.

25 See his article, ‘Intergenerational Equity and Rights and International Criminal Law’ in Sébastien Jodoin and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (eds), Sustainable Development, International Criminal Justice, and Treaty Implementation (Cambridge University Press 2013) 180.

26 Emily Lydgate, ‘Sustainable Development in the WTO: From Mutual Supportiveness to Balancing’ (2012) 11 World Trade Review 621.

27 LS (n 5) [13].

28 LS (n 5) [53].

29 LS (n 5) [102].

30 For example, LS (n 4) [94], [129], [180].

31 LS (n 5) [30].

32 LS (n 5) [103]–[114]. This critique of technocratic thinking has much in common with earlier analyses, such as Martin Heidegger's essay, ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ in Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays (translated and with an Introduction by William Lovitt, Harper & Row 1977) 3–35.

33 LS (n 5) [86]. For a ‘steady state’ alternative to growth-based economics, see Herman E Daly and Joshua Farley, Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (2nd edn, Island Press 2011).

34 LS (n 5) [109].

35 LS (n 5) [56], emphasis added.

36 LS (n 5) [190]. Process philosopher and eco-theologian, John B Cobb, Jr, refers to the quasi-religious veneration of the market as economism. In his book The Earthist Challenge to Economism: A Theological Critique of the World Bank (St. Martin's 1999), Cobb writes: Economism is ‘the commitment to increase production and consumption of goods and services, and the subordination of other concerns to that end’ (39). Economism, he says, has become ‘the “religion” that governs planetary affairs’ (28).

37 LS (n 5) [137] et seq.

38 LS (n 5) [141].

39 LS (n 5) [196].

40 LS (n 5) [138]–[142].

41 LS (n 5) [147].

42 LS (n 5) [156].

43 LS (n 5) [158].

44 See, for example, OCF (n 9) 118.

45 LS (n 5) [160].

46 ‘Climate Clubs: Designing a Mechanism to Overcome Free-riding in International Climate Policy’. A 30-slide PowerPoint presentation http://carbon-price.com/wp-content/uploads/2015-01-04-Nordhaus-ClimateClubAEA-v2-slides.pdf accessed 22 October 2015.

47 William Nordhaus, ‘Climate Clubs: Overcoming Free-Riding in International Climate Policy’ (2015) 105 American Economic Review 1339 (Presidential Address to the American Economic Association) http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.15000001 accessed 22 October 2015. Hereafter, ‘Nordhaus, AEA Journal’.

48 William Nordhaus, ‘Climate Clubs to Overcome Free-Riding’ (2015) 31(4) Issues in Science and Technology unpaginated http://issues.org/31-4/climate-clubs-to-overcome-free-riding/ accessed 22 October 2015. Hereafter, ‘Nordhaus, Issues’.

49 Ibid.

50 Nordhaus interprets the target carbon price as the consensus social cost of carbon emissions. The social cost of carbon is ‘the marginal damage from a unit of emissions’. Nordhaus, AEA Journal (n 47) 1342.

51 Coalition DICE, or Coalition Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy (ibid, 1352–53).

52 Nordhaus, Issues (n 48).

53 Nordhaus, AEA Journal (n 47) 1367.

54 See IBA report (n 1) 31 (Action Matrix).

55 ‘Understanding the WTO: Basics: Principles of the Trading System’ www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact2_e.htm accessed 22 October 2015.

56 Ibid.

57 Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/analytic_index_e/wto_agree_01_e.htm accessed 14 October 2015.

58 See IBA report (n 1) 31 (Action Matrix).

59 IBA Report (n 1) 47.