Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) delivered the keynote speech at the Remaking Global Trade for a Sustainable Future conference held at Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) on Feb. 8.

The conference, hosted by the Center for Inclusive Trade and Development (CITD), a GULC initiative that seeks to synthesize a diverse array of academic and professional perspectives on international trade rules, featured speakers and panelists with expertise on global trade. Coons, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussed his outlook on the intersections of climate change and trade policy.

Coons said that, in general, he feels the status quo of U.S. trade policy has failed to fully account for the implications associated with a rapidly warming climate.

“In my view, the trade rules of the last three decades are often sharply at odds with the environmental exigencies of today,” Coons said. “That’s the first challenge that I think we are facing: that the world today has changed dramatically and that climate change is recognized as one of the overwhelming threats to the future of our world.”

As the new year began, record-setting high temperatures were recorded across the world for the eighth consecutive month. The burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are widely regarded by scientists as causes for the increases in temperature, which include a Feb. 3 average sea temperature of 69.9 degrees — breaking the previous record that was set in September 2023.

Speaking to his current role as a member of the U.S. Congress — which is currently deadlocked in a debate over legislation that would send humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Israel — Coons said he is well aware that the dysfunction of the American law-making body complicates calls for impactful action. 

“There is an air of uncertainty and a lot of anger and a lot of disappointment in the Senate about whether we can come together and address large challenges in the world,” Coons said. “Historically, some have called the Senate the world’s greatest deliberative body — that has a certain ring of irony to it today.”

Regardless, Coons said that some legislators have taken important steps to promote bipartisanship, citing the group that represented the United States at the 28th United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) this past December.

“I wanted to balance being realistic about how fractured and divided and broken the legislative process is, but also giving you some reason for optimism,” Coons said. “We have moved away from climate denialism being a simple point that divided the two parties to having a bipartisan delegation that went to the last COP. So again, some encouragement, some challenge.”

As a Senator, Coons said he prioritizes developing sustainable trade partnerships with African nations — in particular through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to certain U.S. markets.

“AGOA is a market access program that provides tariff-free access to the United States for dozens of African countries,” Coons said. “And that market access is hugely valuable and gives us an opportunity to shape our relationships and to deepen them as it tries to align aid, trade and diplomatic efforts. So more countries can utilize and benefit from this program to deepen their economic ties with the United States.”

Coons said that international partnerships — particularly with nations in the Global South and developing countries — will prove key in maintaining and enhancing global trade.

“The global trade system is only sustainable if the Global South countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are benefiting and profiting from further engagement in trade,” Coons said. “Figuring out, through this exercise, a broader approach to a more inclusive and equitable global trading system will help us begin to make real progress towards a more sustainable global trade.”

In 2022, Coons published an opinion in The Hill with Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) that discussed his support for bipartisan legislation to expand U.S. trade partnerships abroad — in particular with the United Kingdom, Kenya and Ecuador.

According to Coons, young people interested in pursuing careers in climate sustainability and trade should seek to learn not just from books and lectures, but from real-life experiences.

When he was a junior at Amherst College, Coons studied abroad in Nairobi, Kenya, an experience that he said inspired him to volunteer to work against apartheid in South Africa and informed his foreign policy focus on Africa. 

“Spend at least as much time learning from people as you have from books. You’ve probably spent your entire life learning from books — maybe not, but at a place like Georgetown, probably — and the reality of these very complex global issues is often very different on the ground,” Coons told The Hoya.

“So go. It is not a bad thing to spend a year or two or three or 10, actually in places that may be or feel very different,” he added.