Globalization and climate change: State of knowledge, emerging issues, and policy implications

In an integrated global economy, trade policy and climate policy are closely intertwined. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to provide an overview of the key debates in economics, political science, and legal studies related to globalization and climate change. We identify a number of emerging issues that deserve increased attention in future research in this direction. These include international financial flows, migration, telecommunication, and digitization as well as changing lifestyles and consumption patterns across the globe. We also present potential research question regarding the diversification of import and export portfolios in the face of growing climate impacts and the decarbonization of industry, aviation, and shipping. Finally, we discuss how these recent developments could shape trade and climate policy formulation. We conclude that ambitious climate policies seem more likely to flourish in an open world trading system which provides sufficient flexibility for individual countries to adopt nationally appropriate climate policies.