In January 2008 the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs initiated a project on climate standards in co-operation with concerned departments and public authorities. The project objective is to strengthen developing countries’ opportunities for increased trade with climate friendly goods and services. One approach is to support developing countries becoming more involved in international climate standardisation. By active participation in standardisation work, developing countries should be able to expand their production and improve economic growth. The ambition of the Swedish Climate Standards Project is to enable developing countries to take an active part in the development of standards by influencing its content right from the beginning, instead of applying a standard designed by developed countries in accordance with their needs and production conditions.
The National Board of Trade co-ordinates the project and acts as a focal point for activities, capacity building and policy development related to climate standards from a development perspective.

Background
During the climate conference on Bali in December 2007, an informal meeting between the ministers of trade was organised to discuss how trade policy instruments could contribute to the fight against climate change. The potential of standards to spread climate-friendly technology for emission mitigation was noted. However, it was pointed out that it would be a challenge to find a balance between setting climate standards aiming to mitigate greenhouse gases and, on the other hand, not creating new barriers to trade, in particular for developing countries. Today, there is a lack of awareness and capacity from developing countries to benefit from international standardisation work as a tool to increase business opportunities on export markets and improve economic growth. Therefore, trade ministers, among them the Swedish Trade Minister, stressed the importance of addressing the potential negative impacts of standards, certification and labelling systems, for standards to become a tool for climate mitigation and promoting sustainable development.