Green Trade Workshop 2022 

Online PhD Workshop May 16th, 2022

The Greening of Global Trade? Policy Instruments in the Intersection of Trade and Environment

Stringent environmental regulation is crucial to steer the global economy towards more sustainable trajectories that can exist within the confines of planetary boundaries. This shift must take place along multiple dimensions including, but not limited to, (i) decoupling resource usage from economic growth and from pollution and (ii) eliminating greenhouse gas emissions. International trade plays a critical role in facilitating or hindering this shift because it is the engine of the global economy; it embodies large environmental impacts and plays a key role in delivering material well being. State and non-state actors and at various scales and levels are increasingly coming up with a variety of policy instruments to steer trade flows towards environmental sustainability: environmental provisions in trade agreements, border measures or carbon taxes, voluntary sustainability standards, due diligence regulation and so forth. These tools are getting increasing attention as a way to steer the transition to a more sustainable economy. Yet, regulating the intersection of trade and environment also presents many daunting challenges for public and private regulators alike. This workshop aims to critically reflect on this variety of domestic and international policy instruments on the trade and environment nexus.