GENEVA, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) said on Tuesday that the leaders of small island developing states, senior government officials and experts will meet next week to affirm the global trade policy's role in fighting the climate crisis.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said at a press conference here that the first ever UN Trade Forum will be held on Sept. 9-13 at the UN's European headquarters here.
The event will feed into the UN Climate Action Summit to be held on Sept. 23 in New York.
"What is happening in the Bahamas today speaks more clearly than anything I could say about the impact of trade and climate change and what's happening to our islands," said Pamela Coke-Hamilton, director of UNCTAD's Trade and Commodities Division, at a UN press conference here.
She was referring to Hurricane Dorian, which has been wreaking havoc in the Bahamas in the Caribbean, flattening infrastructure and buildings and claiming at least five lives.
"This is the third devasting hurricane in less than three years and the worst to hit the Caribbean in 55 years," she said.
Coke-Hamilton said the climate crisis will wipe out the trade gains of small island developing states if the problem is not addressed now.
Forum participants will explore linkages between trade, climate change, oceans economy and biodiversity, and exchange innovative ideas and approaches on how global trade and related policies may enable and support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
"Tackling the climate crisis brings many added benefits, such as economic diversification, jobs and innovation, which form the basis for shared prosperity and financial stability," UNCTAD Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi said in a statement.
UNCTAD said that articulating a positive agenda on climate and trade signals is an essential departure from the past two decades of treating trade as a taboo subject in climate policy.
"The Paris Agreement does not contain any references to trade, but in a sense it is the most important trade agreement," said Coke-Hamilton.
She noted that the Paris Agreement opens the prospects for a collective transformation, for individual economies and for the global economy as well.
