New Analysis Shows How a Climate Peace Clause Could End Increasing Trade Attacks on Green Jobs Initiatives & Other Climate Measures

Just days before the U.S. hosts the European Union (EU) to continue negotiations within the Trade and Technology Council (TTC), Trade Justice Education Fund and the Sierra Club released a new analysis that details the urgent need for a Climate Peace Clause and recommendations as to how it could be designed and implemented. The analysis, released today, comes as the EU and other nations continue to attack U.S. green jobs initiatives and other climate measures in the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act as violations of global trade rules.

"The global community is not on track to reduce emissions at the scale needed to avoid irreversible damage to communities and ecosystems. Governments must have and use every tool in the toolbox to ratchet up climate ambition, and we simply do not have time for governments to continue using outdated trade agreements to attack and undermine climate action," said Hebah Kassam, Director of the Living Economy program at the Sierra Club. "We are calling on the U.S. to propose a Climate Peace Clause in the TTC negotiations to end trade attacks on climate policies such as initiatives to create green jobs and healthier communities."

As described in the analysis, a Climate Peace Clause is a commitment from governments to refrain from using dispute settlement mechanisms in trade agreements to challenge other countries' climate mitigation and clean energy transition measures. In the face of increasing use of trade pacts to challenge climate policies, a Climate Peace Clause would help governments safeguard existing climate mitigation and transition measures by protecting them from trade challenges and incentivize and offer countries time to work together and resolve conflicts between trade agreements and the imperative for climate action, the paper argues. Additionally, the analysis also recommends how such a peace clause could be enforced, durations, labor and environmental exceptions, and commitments to developing nations.

"Language similar to a Climate Peace Clause had been included in TTC text leaked earlier this year, but was later reported to have been removed. As two trusted trading partners committed to tackling climate change, a Climate Peace Clause is a common-sense step the U.S. and EU can take right now to show leadership both on trade and on climate," said Arthur Stamoulis, Executive Director of Trade Justice Education Fund. "We urge the U.S. to make good on its promise to create a worker and climate-friendly model of trade and to propose and adopt a Climate Peace Clause in the TTC."

A PDF of "The Case for and Design of a Climate Peace Clause" is online here.