Reforming Harmful Subsidies has been a common goal of the trade and environment communities and strongly features the WTO Doha agenda. UN Environment Programme has long engaged in multilateral efforts for subsidies reform. It supports phasing out subsidies for fossil fuels, unsustainable fisheries, and other environmentally and socially harmful activities. In addition, UNEP assists governments and other stakeholders in developing national and international social, inclusive, and sustainable reforms.
Energy subsidies
On energy subsidies, UNEP focuses on reforming subsidies leading to overproduction and aligning fiscal incentives with sustainable development objectives. UNEP has organized jointly with the International Energy Agency (IEA) a series of thematic workshops on reforming energy subsidies to further the dialogue on energy subsidies and their implications for sustainable development.
Fisheries Subsidies
Fish is the most traded animal protein commodity. However, a growing global population and increased demand for food have amplified unsustainable fisheries practices. As a result, the sustainability of global fishery resources continues to decline, having dropped from 90 per cent in 1974 to 65.8 per cent in 2017. The UNEP Environment & Trade Hub has a key role in helping countries deliver upon SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) 14, to trade-related targets 14.4 (regulating illegal unregulated or unreported - IUU - fishing activities), 14.6 (prohibiting certain forms of fisheries subsidies) and 14. b (market access for small-scale artisanal fishers).
Responses to the need for fisheries subsidies reform
UNEP's work focuses on promoting responses to fisheries subsidies reform. The book Fisheries Subsidies, Sustainable Development and the WTO serves as a comprehensive reference manual for policymakers and academics by providing a historical overview of fisheries subsidies reform key issues under WTO negotiations. Under the common objective of "Reforming trade and fisheries policies, reshaping supply chains and enhancing consumer demand for sustainable fisheries management", country teams in Ecuador, South Africa and Vietnam explored public policy reforms related to fisheries management, subsidies and trade, private sector voluntary actions, and supply chain interventions.
Newmarket-based approaches and incentives
UN Environment Programme plays a lead role in promoting new market-based approaches and incentives to improve the sustainability of industrial and small-scale fisheries, such as the implementation of sustainability certification schemes. The project "Establishing sustainable, resource-efficient agri-food supply chains" focused on improving resource efficiency, including ecosystem services underpinning agricultural and fisheries production, as well as energy and water consumed in production, processing and trade.
High-level events representing the UNEP Environment & Trade Hub
In July 2016 UNEP, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) made an international call to the Member States and the International Community to deliver trade-related targets in SDG 14. Ninety-one countries, four intergovernmental organizations, and 15 civil society groups declared their support for a global roadmap to eliminate harmful fisheries subsidies by 2020. In June 2017, at a side event on reforming fisheries subsidies at the high-profile Oceans Conference in New York, UNEP, FAO and UNCTAD, launched a new voluntary commitment to provide joint policy advice and technical support to countries. The latest draft of the agreement on fisheries subsidies is due to be negotiated at the 12th Ministerial Conference, which has been postponed multiple times due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Support countries to make trade and investment activities more sustainable by assessing adverse environmental, social, and health impacts related to trade practices, and developing alternative solutions.
