United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

UN Environment’s Governing Council requested in 2001 that UN Environment “assist countries, particularly developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to enhance their capacities to develop and implement mutually supportive trade and environmental policies” in a manner that is “geared to reflect the socio-economic and development priorities, as well as the needs and capacities of individual countries” (GC 21/14).

Located within UN Environment’s Economy Division, the Economics and Trade Branch seeks to conserve the environment, reduce poverty, and promote sustainable development by enhancing the capacity of governments, businesses, and civil society to integrate environmental considerations into economic, trade, and financial policies and practices. Trade and environment policies are often developed in relative isolation from one another due to a limited understanding of trade and environment linkages, insufficient coordination among policymakers, and a lack of capacity to design integrated and mutually supportive policies. UN Environment has been responding to this challenge by initiating a number of initiatives and activities which aim to build the capacity of developing countries to integrate trade, environment and development objectives into national policy making.

Since 1997, UN Environment has supported numerous country-driven, national-level integrated assessments of the environmental, social and economic impacts of trade liberalization in specific sectors, such as fisheries, agriculture, and forestry, with the goal of ensuring that trade liberalization supports national sustainable development objectives and poverty reduction strategies. UN Environment launched the Inclusive Green Economy Initiative in 2008 consisting of global research and country-level assistance aiming at motivating policymakers to support environmental investments as a way to achieve sustainable development. UN Environment provides analysis and policy support for countries transitioning to an inclusive green economy, aiming to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation.

In 2015, former UN Environment Executive Director Mr. Achim Steiner launched the Environment and Trade Hub. The Hub serves as the overarching delivery mechanism for UN Environment’s work on trade. By working through a network of national, regional, and international partners, the Environment and Trade Hub can offer interdisciplinary services across four core focus areas:

1. Enhancing trade and investment in Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs);
2. Shaping governance at the trade, investment and environment nexus;
3. Green markets and global value chains; and
4. Reducing the footprint of trade and greening the brown.

As a demand-driven mechanism, the Environment and Trade Hub offers capacity building and related policy advice on sustainable trade and investment that are tailored to local needs and circumstances. Specific services offered include:

1. Technical trainings supporting international, regional and national design and implementation of sustainable trade and investment policies;
2. Targeted stakeholder trainings;
3. Assistance in designing trade and environment related agreements;
4. Development of tools, methodologies and indicators for sustainable trade;
5. Identification and dissemination of best practices;
6. Support to stakeholder consultation and national, regional, and international dialogues on advancing the sustainable trade agenda; and
7. Identification of sector- or region-specific sustainable production and trade opportunities

UN Environment’s trade work is vested in the belief that while the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda offers many opportunities for sustainable trade, it cannot be achieved without balancing the rapid growth of international trade with environmental and social safeguards. Governments have recognized that countries worldwide, and developing countries, in particular, continue to lack sufficient capacity to use trade and investment as vehicles for achieving sustainable development. The Environment and Trade Hub responds to this critical need.