Climate-resilient trade and production: the transboundary effects of climate change and their implications for EU member states

This brief provides an overview of the state of knowledge on transboundary climate risks in Europe and explores how this knowledge could help the Member States, businesses and the EU as a whole to advance climate-resilient trade and production. Three key priorities should guide decision-making, according to this brief: effectiveness in reducing risk; a clear designation of responsibility; and fairness in the distributional impacts of the policies’ effects.

The recommendations presented in this brief, are (p. 5-7):

1. Conduct assessments of transboundary climate risks in trade and production systems;
2. Identify, assess and implement policy options to reduce and manage transboundary climate risks, working with the private sector;
3. Increase the scope of the EU Adaptation Strategy to include transboundary climate risks as a major driver of climate change impacts in Europe;
4. Establish concrete technical and financial mechanisms in the EU Adaptation Strategy to help the Member States to manage transboundary climate risks;
5. Review the sustainability chapters of EU Free Trade Agreements with a view to including measures to address transboundary climate risk in subsequent agreements;
6. Reform the multilateral trade framework to promote sustainable trade practices alongside free trade goals.