The Durban Trade and Climate Change Symposium
Symposium at COP 17/CMP 7
Venue: Southern Sun North Beach Hotel in Durban (South Africa)
Date: 5 December 2011 to 6 December 2011
Start time: 08:30 End time: 20:30
It is with the aim of generating proposals for fostering strong multilateral regimes on trade and climate change and promoting transition to a low-carbon economy and a sustainable energy future that ICTSD, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Department of Trade and Industry of the Republic of South Africa (the dti) are convening this Symposium, to take place on 5 and 6 December 2011 in parallel to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP 17/CMP 7 in Durban, South Africa.
This initiative flows directly from ICTSD’s primary objective - to empower stakeholders in the trade policy and sustainable development domain through providing a forum to generate innovative thinking, analysis and dialogues on the pressing issues of the day.
Details
The broad topics for the Symposium will respond to the principal issues at the nexus of trade policy, market approaches and climate change: market mechanisms such as emission trading schemes and sectoral market mechanisms; carbon leakage and competitiveness; intellectual property and technology transfer; climate-friendly goods and services; agriculture; biofuels; financing mechanisms; the linkages between trade, poverty and climate change; fossil fuels subsidies; transportation and bunker fuels; emerging economies; investment; standards; fisheries; energy and natural resources.
ICTSD already has a long history of working on specific aspects of these linkages. For this Symposium, we envisage a series of panels that will involve a diversity of stakeholders in a constructive, forward-looking dialogue on a set of principles and solutions to ensure the multilateral climate and trade regimes and institutional frameworks are properly equipped and harnessed to deliver on the challenges before them, for Durban and beyond.
The Symposium will provide a space for key voices such as climate delegates, academics, policy researchers and analysts, representatives from IGOs and NGOs to showcase cutting edge analysis of trade, market approaches, climate change and development issues, as well as for an open, multi-stakeholder discussion on the future of the linkages between the multilateral trade and climate change regimes. It would also support other key ICTSD objectives: building and strengthening informal networks of leading institutions from developed and developing countries interested in strengthening policy-making on those issues, and fostering an exchange of views with other knowledge communities.
Programme
The symposium will be held on 5 and 6 December 2011 at the Southern Sun North Beach Hotel in Durban.