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Climate change is a global phenomenon. However, its negative impacts are felt differently across countries. And, as usual, it is the poorest countries that face the greatest challenges.There is real urgency here. An open and informed dialogue on trade and climate change can provide a number of opportunities to World Trade Organization (WTO) members.I would like to highlight three of these.First, this dialogue can help inform members’ views on the role that the WTO can play in supporting climate action. Across the membership, there are different positions on how the WTO should be involved in this discussion, and what solutions it can bring to the table. However, this does not mean that environmental issues are absent from our debates. On the contrary. With the Committee on Trade and Environment, the WTO has a forum dedicated to promoting a better understanding of the relationship between trade and the environment. Members have used this forum quite successfully in recent years to discuss many issues at the intersection of trade and climate change.For example, issues discussed include:• the work of the UNFCCC,• national experiences with climate-related measures, and• the removal of environmentally harmful distortions, including in the energy and forestry sectors.There is a lot to build on here to develop a shared and pragmatic view of how the trading system can best support climate action. So that is the first opportunity I wanted to highlight.The second is the fact that this debate can help spark innovative and climate-friendly solutions. Joint action on trade and climate can open the way for new sources of economic growth and job creation that benefit the environment as well. Take renewable energy for example. For the second year in a row, more than half the new power generation capacity added worldwide was in renewables. Global investment in this sector exceeded 300 billion dollars per year on average over the past 2 years. And this ROBERTO AZEVÊDO, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO)TRADE AND CLIMATE CHANGE“WTO DATA SHOWS THAT CLIMATE MEASURES ARE OFTEN CLOSELY RELATED TO TRADE ”086 TRADE