Over the past decades, world trade has undergone vast change. The financial volume of international trade has more than tripled since 2002. Global exports amount to roughly US$ 21 trillion or nearly 40% of global gross domestic product. Moreover, trade has been increasingly shaped through global value chains of production and globalised patterns of consumption. While production once took place mostly within a single country, today’s operations span across international borders. Components and parts are imported and exported multiple times before a final good is produced and sold. Furthermore, emerging economies and developing countries are playing a growing role in international trade and value chains. The share of developing economies’ exports in world trade expanded from 26% in 1995 to 42% in 2016. Today, South-South trade makes up one-third of world trade and continues to grow at a relatively high rate. More than half of developing country exports in value-added terms involve global value chains. In addition, developing country investments in key environmental sectors, such as the renewable energy sector, are on par with, or even exceed, investments in developed countries.