World trade has an important role in combating climate change

We must improve the dissemination of and access to climate-friendly technologies, goods and services which support the transition towards a low-carbon economy

In a few weeks' time world leaders will have the opportunity to usher in a new era of multilateral cooperation on climate change. This starts with the UN climate change conference in Paris, but it does not end there. Building momentum to tackle climate change is a common challenge for us all - individually and institutionally. The broader international community, including the WTO, has to play its part.

Like most economic activity, trade is often linked to carbon emissions, but the world cannot stop trading - not least as trade is essential in achieving many other shared goals. Trade can help to improve the efficiency of production, it can improve food security and, above all, it has proven to be one of the best anti-poverty tools in history. Trade played a key role in helping us reach the millennium development goal to cut extreme poverty by half - and it is a cross-cutting element in many of the new sustainable development goals agreed at the UN in September, so this work will continue.

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