The writer is chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and a special envoy to Europe for COP30
When the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was created in 1992, trade was largely excluded: Article 3.5 of the convention states that “measures taken to combat climate change, including unilateral ones, should not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade”. Parties left international debates on trade to the World Trade Organization.
But in 2025, when nearly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions are “embodied” — or contained — in internationally traded goods and materials, does this separation still make sense?