Domestically, we have begun to gain a deeper understanding of environmental justice, but what does it mean when we consider policy and relationships at the international level?
On May 28th, Rachel Brewster, the Jeffrey and Bettysue Hughes Professor of Law at Duke School of Law and Jackson Ewing, Senior Fellow at Duke Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions participated in a conversation titled, The Role of Environmental Justice in International Trade and Diplomacy, moderated by Jariel Arvin, Foreign and World Fellow at Vox.
“Trade ideally would do something positive for the environment and environmental justice,“ Rachel Brewster stated. However, “trade has a history with environmentalists as being more interested in the free flow of goods and services across borders than environmental goals and I think there is just a lot of distrust. The trade regime is definitely on board with the idea that climate change is a problem, but at the same time, they want environmental issues addressed in a certain way.”
Brewster outlined two of the major issues she sees between trade and the environment and environmental justice – carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs) and energy subsidies.
When one country has its own cap and trade or carbon tax system and other countries do not, the country with a system in place will essentially tax goods and services imported at the border, otherwise known as a carbon border adjustment mechanism.
Brewster hypothesized that the European Union, which already adopted a cap-and-trade system, is likely going to implement a carbon border adjustment mechanism in the near future and begin with taxing carbon intensive goods including steel, aluminum, paper, textiles and chemicals.
CBAM would apply to all countries, which does pose new implications for environmental justice in terms of the distributional effects, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. Brewster explained that some potential solutions include implementing a generalized system of preferences (GSP) program with certain countries to lower tariffs and additional climate negotiations to deal with the redistribution.
In the case of energy subsidies, Brewster said she hopes “that trade can be of help on these issues and at the very least, get out of the way.”
Subsidies point to an area where international trade and the environment intersect. Brewster explained that it’s important to be aware of the distributional elements and often times “dealing with justice should be a state-by-state issue.”
Jackson Ewing opened by first noting his area of expertise, climate change mitigation, “differs from most environmental challenges in being a truly global collective action problem.”
Given this global nature, each country’s individual goals and actions play a role in leveling the playing field. Ewing added, “since the Paris agreement was ratified, we now have highly differential targets across all countries in the world… fundamentally shifts the way these market interactions will work and calls into the efficacy and justice of exchanging those emissions reductions across borders.”
Ewing noted a variety of regimes at play in coordinating countries’ actions. One is that he expects to play a bigger role in the future is in the private sector – voluntary carbon markets. He said that not only does he think “they are part of the solution and are not going anywhere,” but also, they are “proven to be adept in reaching the outcomes.”
In terms of the environmental justice issues attached to this, he acknowledged that reductions of emissions also have a range of co-benefits and that lead to continued carbon emissions elsewhere. “The criticism often lobbied by these market-based mechanisms is that they allow companies and the jurisdictions where they exist to continue their own pollutive activities that have nefarious consequences for those in the area and they make up for it by paying elsewhere.”
While the tension between environmental and justice goals persists, there are still efforts to consider. Implementing emission quotas, for instance, could help alleviate the most significant effects.
By Lizzie Devitt, 6/9/21