Global Europe and Sustainable Development

Climate effects hit the world’s poor hard. Can EU trade policy support developing countries in meeting these challenges?

The already vulnerable agricultural and food production systems in developing countries are being damaged by climate change, with increased drought in large areas and torrential rainfall in other areas.

About the report Global Europe and Sustainable Development

This report examines the EU trade policy ‘Global Europe’ and the trade negotiations being conducted with a range of less influential developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, where a large proportion of the world’s poorest people live. The partner organisations of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation on various continents contributed to this report.

The report analyses how trade policy and the various trade agreements can affect the possibilities for developing countries to pursue a sustainable development policy and thereby adapt themselves to global warming and strengthen their agriculture. The report also examines Sweden’s attitude and contribution to EU trade policy.

Our recommendations

Sweden has expressed strong support for Global Europe to date. Against the background of this report, and to increase the potential for EU trade policy to contribute to developing countries strengthening their agriculture and being better prepared for climate change, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation recommends that Sweden:

• Re-evaluates the demands on the less influential developing countries to always enter trade agreements that go beyond what has been agreed in WTO.
• Works for the EU to enter trade agreements that fulfil the requirements on compliance and development perspective formulated in Global Europe, EU Policy Coherence for Development and Swedish Policy for Global Development.
• Takes the initiative for a dialogue on Global Europe and the new Swedish framework instructions for trade negotiations with Africa on Economic Partnership Agreements.
• Provides a good example and increases transparency as regards negotiations, and works to ensure that the EU does likewise.
• Develops policies on how development and environmental policy targets can be systematically allowed to have a more decisive influence on positions in trade negotiations with developing countries.
• Drives to ensure that negotiations are always preceded by thorough consequence analyses.
• Establishes concrete ways of funding and transferring the technology needed by developing countries to counteract and deal with climate change.