By Duncan Miriri
NAIROBI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Kenya's candidate to become the
next head of the World Trade Organisation pledged on Thursday to
integrate climate change issues into the WTO agenda if selected.
Amina Mohamed, who is the East African nation's sports
minister, progressed to the second round of selection to become
the next director-general of the WTO, along with four other
candidates, on Friday. "How is it possible that the WTO does not discuss climate
change?... WTO must be a part of the global conversation on
climate change," she told an online media briefing from Geneva.
Mohamed, who was involved in the development of green
financial instruments when she was the deputy head of the U.N.
agency for the environment (UNEP), said she would make the WTO's
trade and environment committee active.
"At the end of the day, it is about the bottom line, but
that bottom line can actually be improved by going green because
that is the future," she said.
The committee's first task, if she wins the selection
contest, would be to draw up rules for the international trade
of environmental goods and services like solar panels and wind
turbines, she said.
It will also look to replicate climate change mitigation
initiatives, like the carbon tax in Europe, which is now being
adopted by other states in places like Africa.
"The WTO can do that on a grander scale... so that the
impact of the measures that we are putting in place can be
felt," Mohamed said, adding that the measures will be
accompanied by incentives for firms like other tax breaks.
The wider adoption of those climate change mitigation
measures will make the globe reap their benefits sooner, because
"we don't have to wait for 50 years" to feel the impact of
individual states or trade blocs are doing, she said.
In the second round of selection, the WTO's 164 members will
give their preferences from Sept 24 to Oct 6, whittling the
candidates down to two. The organisation has said it wants to
select the winner by early November.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)