The May 2023 Workshop of the Remaking the Global Trading System for a Sustainable Future Project took place in Bridgetown, Barbados, and focused on the concerns of developing countries (the Global South) under the theme Trade and Climate Action: Shifting the Paradigm for a Just Transition and Sustainable Development.  The Workshop began with an feature address by Barbados Prime Minister,  Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, that served as a call to action to all participants to use the Workshop to address the inequality, injustice and unfairness of the current international structures governing trade, finance and climate.

The Workshop was conceptualized against a sobering reality, namely that, as is widely accepted,   the world is not on target to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a key component of which is Goal 13, which urges countries to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”  At the same time, many developing countries face a “perfect storm” of increasing debt due to Covid-19 and climate change costs, increasing debt service costs due to appreciating reserve currencies and higher interest rates, and rising costs for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage from climate change. These countries have therefore repeatedly stressed that combatting and overcoming the negative effects of climate change will not only require wealthier countries to meet their mitigation commitments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), but also their obligations to the developing world on adaptation and loss and damage. Prof. Avinash Persaud – the Climate Envoy on Climate Finance for Prime Minister Mia Mottley – in his feature address to the Workshop, stressed that a very significant portion of developing country debt has arisen from climate change. 

It is against this background that the Barbados Workshop under the Remaking the Global Trading System for a Sustainable Future Project was designed,  by the Remaking Trade Team, with inputs from experts at the Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government and the TESS Forum. Held in Bridgetown, Barbados on 2-5 May, the Workshop brought together a curated and diverse list of about 50 experts from the fields of trade, finance, sustainable development and climate, comprising policymakers, academics, regional and international officials, civil society leaders, and business and finance executives.  Together, this group of thought leaders, including strong representation from developing countries, debated and ultimately proposed solutions on how the trade agenda can advance sustainable climate action in a manner that meets the needs and priorities of developing countries.