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Nonprofits Argue That EU, US Need to Agree to Climate Peace Cause

The Sierra Club and the Trade Justice Fund say that the EU and the U.S. should agree on a Climate Peace Cause, because otherwise, trade disputes could slow the progress of reducing carbon emissions. The two groups, in a white paper published Dec. 1, noted that Japan and the EU successfully challenged a Canadian program that supported renewable energy, and the U.S. and India each successfully challenged buy local rules for solar energy. "Trade scholars are already questioning the trade legality of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and ... [t]he European Union and South Korea, among other countries, have threatened a trade case against the tax credit for electric vehicles and other measures included in the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act," the paper said.

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In a press release announcing the analysis, the groups said that the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council had earlier included language on a Peace Clause, but it was not retained. "Governments must have and use every tool in the toolbox to ratchet up climate ambition, and we simply do not have time for governments to continue using outdated trade agreements to attack and undermine climate action,” said Hebah Kassam, director of the Living Economy program at the Sierra Club. “We are calling on the U.S. to propose a Climate Peace Clause in the TTC negotiations to end trade attacks on climate policies such as initiatives to create green jobs and healthier communities.”