Green Bills for Green Earth: How the International Trade and Climate Regimes Work Together To Save the Planet
European Energy and Environmental Law Review, Vol. 31, Issue 1, pp. 19-40, 2022
22 Pages Posted: 6 Dec 2021 Last revised: 31 Jan 2022
Date Written: December 2, 2021
Abstract
Through their Intergovernmental Panels on Climate Change, the scientific community tells us that we are heading towards a climate catastrophe. As a result, various countries are offering various promising and novel policy instruments to mitigate climate change and continue to grow macro-economically, as we witnessed in the Glasgow Conference of the Parties in 2021. In other words, finding ways to grow economically while, at the same time, protect the environment and mitigate climate change. In that spirit, this article first provides an overview of the global trade and climate regimes. It then offers an analysis of how the World Trade Organisation globally and the European Union (EU) regionally might combat climate change in remarkable ways. The article also provides an analysis of the European Green Deal and the US Green New Deal, two encouraging policy instruments to help mitigate climate change ambitiously. Finally, the article provides a thorough assessment of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Keywords: European Green Deal, US Green New Deal, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, carbon pricing, GATT general exceptions, non-discrimination principle in GATT
JEL Classification: K33, Q4, Q54, Q50
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation