On Trade Policies and Climate Change

Project Information

TradePoliciesClimate

Grant agreement ID: 101031139

DOI

10.3030/101031139

Project closed

EC signature date 29 April 2021

Start date 1 July 2021

End date 25 February 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 175 673,28

EU contribution

€ 175 673,28

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TradePoliciesClimate (On Trade Policies and Climate Change)

Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

During the last decades temperatures have raised by about 1.5 Degree Celsius and the with marked differences across geographical areas. The changes in climate conditions have severe effects on anthropogenic activities and sectors, such as agriculture, tourism, service. Many effects are still ignored or not well understood. This is even truer for complex phenomena depending on the human interactions, such as trade exchanges. More precisely, there is very little comprehension on the consequences that climate change is having on international relationships and regulatory regimes. This is extremely important for the society insofar the effects of the climate change may revolutionize countries’ interconnectedness and reshape the globalization. The overall objectives of TradePoliciesClimate were to analyse the impacts of climate change on trade and its normative framework.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

TradePoliciesClimate has allowed to derive clear and important results. First, the project has shown that climate change alters export capacities and trade incentives. In other terms, the changes in climate interfere with the capability of the exporting countries to provide goods for international markets. As the project has shown, this implies that the evolution of the climate conditions will induce a reshape in trade flows, diverting the existing one and creating new routes.
Second, TradePoliciesClimate has clearly shown that the trade regulations that have been implemented for the protection of the environment have impacted trade flows. More precisely, the project demonstrates that those measures have shrunk trade relationships. This is very true for countries that have not implemented technical measures for the protection of the environment. These findings have important geopolitical implications, insofar while there is a wide consensus on the necessity to protect the global environment and to limit global warming, the costs associated with trade measures are clearly unevenly distributed.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project has significantly advanced the state of the art. Before the completion of TradePoliciesClimate the literature fell short of evidence on the relationships between the change in climate conditions and countries’ export capacity. As already discussed, the implications of TradePoliciesClimate are wide for the society. The project suggests a clear direction for future analyses that should be devoted to understanding how the evolving climate will reshape trade and, as a consequence, will alter the physical availability and the economic accessibility of traded goods. The project has initiated a new strand of research.

Trade Policies Climate