Trade & Climate

CAN Europe wants to see an EU trade policy that respects planetary boundaries. Companies, including the fossil fuel industry, and financial institutions must be held accountable for their climate, social and environmental impacts throughout their supply chains to generate socially and environmentally responsible business models as well as trade and investment agreements that do not hinder a just transition. Our vision is shaped by CAN Europe’s five-year strategy and our network-wide position on trade, as well as fitting within a transformative vision of the Economy of Tomorrow.

 

We believe the EU has the means to enact stronger environmental and human rights protection in its trade policies. It is one of the world’s largest trading blocs, making it an important place to create green trade policies and have a global impact. In the last decade, the EU has launched plan after plan to integrate sustainability goals into its trade policy. Yet a meaningful green shift in EU trade remains elusive, making our trade campaigns vital.

 

EU trade continues to plunder resources and ecosystems, consolidate the power and influence of corporate giants, trample on the rights of workers and peoples in Europe and around the world, placing a more liveable and just future further from our reach. What’s more, EU trade policies continue to stand in the way of decisive climate action.

 

What are we doing?

 

Our trade work is dedicated to exposing the EU’s destructive trade and investment models as well as calling for better alignment with the EU’s climate ambition and founding values.

 

We do this by focusing on the EU’s trade instruments, including specific trade agreements, investment deals, partnerships, and internal EU legislation.

 

More specifically, we are campaigning to:

• Stop harmful free trade deals, such as the EU-Mercosur trade agreement.
• Further dismantle the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system.
• Uphold corporate accountability on climate, environment and human rights, with a focus on the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

 

The trade work at CAN Europe is rooted in global justice, ambitious climate action, solidarity, and strengthening movements. We therefore work collaboratively with our members in Europe and around the world, as well as with coalitions such as the European Trade Justice Coalition (ETJC) to influence trade policies at the EU level.

 

Success Story

A proud achievement of our advocacy and mobilisation has been exposing the climate-wrecking Energy Charter Treaty and the dangerous Investor-State Dispute Settlement system, as well as securing the historic exit of the EU from the ECT in 2024, along with a growing number of member states. For years, CAN Europe campaigned together with civil society organisations and climate activists across Europe, exposing the dangers of the toxic treaty and calling on the EU and European countries to withdraw from it. In 2021, CAN Europe’s petition against the ECT gathered over 1 million signatures from citizens across the EU. Ahead of the historical EU ECT exit, CAN Europe was named a leading contributor to the European Parliament’s recommendation report on the EU’s withdrawal from the climate-wrecking treaty.