The Integration of Biodiversity & Trade Policy

Moderator: Simon Happersberger, PhD Researcher, BSoG

Speakers:

• Madelaine Tuininga, European Commission, DG Trade, Head of Unit Trade and Sustainable Development
• Shunta Yamaguchi, OECD, Environment Directorate, Policy Analyst Environment and Economy Integration
• Marianne Kettunen, GCRF Trade, Development and the Environment Hub, Senior Policy Expert & Advisor
• Saskia Bricmont, European Parliament, Greens/EFA group, MEP

Whereas the integration of trade and biodiversity is not a new topic, the demand for new answers has rapidly increased in the context of the current biodiversity crisis. International trade has been identified as one of the underlying causes of biodiversity loss due to its effects on the scale of production, organisms, land-use change, and the diffusion of external species[1][2]. Various actors are increasingly acknowledging the interlinkages between trade and biodiversity in recent policies: On the environmental side, the Global Biodiversity Framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 address the role of trade and in particular the issue of wildlife trade. On the trade side, the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies limits subsidies to fisheries to biologically sustainable levels, EU trade agreements incorporate biodiversity provisions, and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive demands to avoid adverse environmental impacts on biodiversity.

What do these policy changes mean for EU trade policy and for biodiversity? Are the policy changes enough to address the negative externalities of European trade on biodiversity? How could EU trade contribute positively to biodiversity protection? The second session of the BSOG Policy Forum Series on Biodiversity & Economic Policies, will focus on the interlinkages between biodiversity and trade policy. We aim to discuss with experts from the administration, the science-policy interface, as well as thinktanks, about recent and necessary policy changes in the biodiversity-trade-nexus. In particular, we will spotlight the trade-biodiversity elements of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, the Global Biodiversity Framework, the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, EU Trade Agreements and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive with regard to the following questions:  

• How can EU trade contribute to biodiversity protection?
• How to govern biodiversity impacts embodied and displaced in EU trade? 
• What do the Global Biodiversity Framework and the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies imply for EU trade policy?
• What does the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 require from EU trade policy?
• How do EU trade agreements account for ecological exchange in biodiversity? 
• What do companies need to do under the EU due diligence regulation with respect to biodiversity?