WASHINGTON, DC – Catrina Rorke, executive director of the Climate Leadership Council’s Center for Climate and Trade, issued the following statement regarding senior advisor to the president John Podesta’s announcement on plans to launch a Climate and Trade Task Force:
“The Council is encouraged by the administration providing its clearest signal yet that it is embracing climate and trade policies. As John Podesta noted, and as confirmed by Council supported research, nearly a quarter of global emissions are embodied in internationally traded goods. We cannot meaningfully lower global emissions without leveraging trade policy. We need a global trading system that appropriately rewards lower-carbon production, penalizes higher-carbon production, and creates market-based incentives for everyone, everywhere to improve their carbon performance.
The U.S. has a carbon advantage, producing goods with fewer emissions than most countries in the world. With the right climate and trade policies, we can leverage that advantage to drive down global emissions and realize an immense economic benefit at home. These policies will also open the door to more exports of American-made, low-carbon technologies in the developed and developing world, supporting the adoption of cleaner solutions.”