Global Warming And World Trade System

According to the report of IPCC, the modern society pays far more attention on global warming than any other international business. Global warming deeply influenced the human life to such a degree that no other international business could bear comparison with. However, when we focus on the multilateral environmental agreements, we find consanguineous relationship between global warming and the world trade system. The Kyoto Protocol which aimed at restraining global warming seems to be a law of world trade. World trade system becomes very important in controlling the emission of greenhouse gas.The purpose of this article is to propose several practical suggestions to mitigate and adapt to the global warming under the principle of justice, meanwhile promote the development of international trade. By combining the anti-global warming measures into the world trade system, realize the harmonious development between climate and trade.This article is divided into three parts. Part one is foreword, briefly introduced the global warming problem and the efforts people have made to deal with this problem. Main relevant studies about this subject both domestic and abroad are also introduces in part one.On the base of amount of studies relevant to this subject, part two analyzed the relationship between global warming and international trade. This part detailedly introduced and analyzed the three main trade related measures that are designed to reduce greenhouse emission, then respectively discussed their applicability and what need to be noticed in the practical operation. Part two also discussed the"historic emission principle"as the only reasonable standard to assign obligations among countries to reduce greenhouse emission, then discussed application of the three main measures under the"historic emission principle". At last, this part emphasized the importance of trade and trade opening in responding to global warming, proposed several suggestions in cooperation between WTO and UNFCCC. Part three is the conclusion. Based on the analyse above, the effect of trade and trade opening in adapting to global warming should be emphasized. New trade pattern should be taken as a means of economic adaptation to climate change."Historic emission principle"should be the only reasonable standard to assign obligation among countries. Under this standard, in the system of Carbon Tax, different tax rat between developing and developed countries should be allowed. In Emission Trading Scheme, more allowances should be assigned to developing countries to ensure the safety of their economy. Developed countries may make use of their financial and technology advantages to help developing countries through CDM and"offset"programs, meanwhile earn more allowances for themselves. As no"Carbon Leakage"occurs, border measures is only an excuse of trade protectionism. Meanwhile on the account of that Border Carbon Adjustment measures is costly and not practical, it should not be carried out, and any border measures in future should be checkup by an expert group before they are carried out. EU and North America should decrease the share of overland transport to reduce the emission from transport, because road transport produce far more greenhouse emission than shipping. The last part of this article also presented the problems that still need to be solved.