Climate Clubs as a Lightning Rod for Tensions in Trade and Industrial Competitiveness

On 20 September, 2023, from 5 to 7 p.m., Wuppertal Institute together with the German Economic Institute will host an online workshop on the influence of climate clubs on the major lines of development in international trade, and in the industrial policy race between the major global industrial powers. The event will be held in English and is part of the SCI4Climate.NRW and NDC ASPECTS projects.

While the global transformation process triggered by the Paris Agreement will create winners and losers, it now seems increasingly clear that overall, there are tremendous opportunities. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a race seems to have begun among the major industrial powers – the United States, the European Union, China and increasingly India: The countries are competing for dominance in the future markets for green technologies and the raw materials required for them. At the same time, the COVID-related supply chain crisis and the Russian attack on Ukraine have contributed to the push to secure and relocate key strategic supply chains as part of national industrial policies. Both of these developments harbour the risk of leading to the introduction of protectionist measures which will ultimately hurt global decarbonisation.

Against this background, the participants – with a substantive focus on the role of climate clubs – discuss current international developments: An international innovation race towards building up green industries is necessary to support the global transformation. However, it must be ensured that this race takes place under fair conditions and in a spirit of international cooperation.

Dr. Lukas Hermwille, Senior Researcher in the Global Climate Governance Research Unit at the Wuppertal Institute, will open the discussion with a keynote address. He will then discuss with Dr. Thilo Schaefer of the German Economic Institute, Dr. Susanne Dröge of the German Environment Agency, Johanna Lehne of E3G, Dr. Todd Tucker of the Roosevelt Institute, and Dr. Noah Kaufman of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, how climate clubs can contribute to international cooperation to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Further information and the possibility to register are available via the link below.

This event is supported with funding from the NDC ASPECTS research project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 101003866.