Special Virtual Forum on Advancing Climate-Smart Trade & Finance

Trade & finance shape the everyday economy. Planetary crisis means nations & sectors that use cooperative innovation to improve lives & livelihoods also have a better chance of enduring prosperity.

• Wednesday, March 19, 2025

• 09:00 EDT / 13:00 UTC

• More information

Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement points to international cooperation to accelerate climate action, without emissions trading. It effectively invites multilateral agreements that mainstream climate action across the whole economy—advancing climate-smart trade and finance. This virtual conference will explore Article 6.8 activities that can start working in 2025, to improve lives and livelihoods.

The volume of everyday trade and financial activity is beyond most of our ability to imagine operations at scale. This is why it is critical that international negotiations around trade and finance answer the Paris Agreement challenge to leverage cooperative innovation throughout value chains.

The project of mainstreaming climate action is by its nature layered, cooperative, and involves scaling innovative business models across diverse economic conditions. It is also about ensuring more people have access to quality services and products that make their lives easier, improve affordability and clean development, and create opportunities for new local investment and job creation. Trade is a scaling mechanism, opening new productive capacity and new markets to expand the investability of innovative solutions.

In this 90-minute virtual conference, the Climate Value Exchange partners and select leading experts will open discussion into cooperative measures that can advance everyday improvements to lives and livelihoods that reduce climate risk, build climate value, and support the rapid scaling of climate-aligned finance.

The Climate Value Exchange and Climate Civics International will guide participants through a series of specific opportunities for climate-smart innovation and investment, linked to the international climate negotiations process. The presentation and discussion of select multilateral climate action opportunities will be followed by a moderated discussion.

---

Agenda

• Review of Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement

• Review of Existing and Emerging Non-Market Approaches

• Focused discussion on mainstreaming timelines in key sectors, including:

  • Adaptation and resilience

  • Energy and decarbonization

  • Food systems

  • Nature restoration and biodiversity recovery

  • Shipping and distribution

  • Urban-rural cooperation

• Moderated discussion

---

Preliminary list of actionable priorities

1. A global co-investment platform for food systems transformation, aligned with climate goals and focused on revitalizing and diversifying marginalized, under-resourced, and unsustainable rural economies;

2. Negotiated climate-smart trade agreements, aligned with the PARIS Principles and allowing each nation to reduce future dependence on polluting practices, while building a green economy;

3. The Climate Value Exchange, intended to serve as a cooperative insight-sharing and policy innovation platform, to support non-market cooperation that builds value locally and across whole economies;

4. Accelerated innovation timelines, including for integrated data systems aimed at providing real-time multidimensional performance tracking for mainstream investment activities;

5. A Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, or similar agreed cooperative framework for the needed transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.

Explore our interactive resource library to learn more about emerging opportunities to advance climate-smart trade and finance.