The recently announced initiative, the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS), provides a fresh opportunity to use trade agreements to tackle the challenges of climate change and sustainable development. In this piece, Giridharan Ramasubramnian argues that if it wishes to be an influential and effective international grouping, the ACCTS should facilitate the transition to a more circular economy among member countries and successfully shape discussions at the nexus between trade, climate and sustainable development in other international forums and institutions. As a potential institutional pathfinder and a living agreement, the ACCTS could expand in scope by bringing in issues related to the circular economy: the removal of barriers to trade in secondary materials, goods and waste, and the development of guidelines for eco-design and recyclability standards. It could also expand in membership by bringing on board countries that are thinking seriously of transitioning to a circular economy. Thus, the ACCTS has a unique potential to act as a catalyst to a circular economy within member countries’ societies and an institutional catalyst that will drive discussions in other international institutions on the topic of circular economy to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
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