“I welcome the substantive work carried out by the initiatives over the last two years, with the support of stakeholders and experts in the environment community. They are an example of how ambitious WTO members are finding innovative ways to reinforce the WTO's deliberative function to address 21st century challenges,” DG Okonjo-Iweala said in remarks released to mark the launch of the MC13 outcomes by the three environmental initiatives — the Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Sustainable Plastics Trade (DPP), the Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD), and the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform (FFSR) Initiative.

“Each of the three environmental initiatives are exploring the interaction between trade and sustainability in their respective areas of work. Yesterday we had a conversation with the full membership about trade and sustainable development, including trade and industrial policy and policy space for industrial development. Fisheries subsidies is another sustainability item we are dealing with. There are a lot of complementarities among these initiatives and the ongoing work at MC13,” DDG Paugam said at the close of the three back-to-back press conferences conducted respectively by each group.

“In the next phase of work, participating WTO member governments will be discussing what further actions they can take based on the opportunities and approaches they identified,” he said.

More information on each environmental initiative's presentations at MC13 are available here:

• Ministerial statement at MC13 outlines concrete action to tackle plastics pollution
• Trade and environmental sustainability initiative maps path to concrete outcomes by MC14
• WTO members working on fossil fuel subsidy reform unveil plan to ramp up efforts