Trade and the Environment - Drivers and Effects of Environmental Provisions in Trade Agreements

The mushrooming of trade agreements and their interlinkages with environmental governance calls for new research on the trade and environment interface. The more than 700 existing preferential trade agreements (PTAs) include ever more diverse and far-reaching environmental provisions. While missed opportunities remain and harmful provisions persist, numerous environmental provisions in PTAs entail promising potential. They promote the implementation of environmental treaties and cover numerous environmental issues. New concepts, data, and methods, including detailed content analysis across multiple institutions, are needed to explain these interlinkages and understand whether and how PTAs with environmental provisions can contribute to tackling global environmental challenges. Making use of the most extensive coding of environmental provisions in PTAs to date and combining quantitative data with qualitative analyses, this Element provides a comprehensive yet fine-grained picture of the drivers and effects of environmental provisions in PTAs. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

List of contents

1. Introduction; 2. Trade and environment: interlinkages, complexity and fragmentation; 3. Linking trade and the environment in PTAs; 4. Drivers of environmental provisions in PTAs; 5. North-South dynamics; 6. The diffusion of environmental provisions in PTAs; 7. Effects of environmental provisions in PTAs; 8. Multilateralising environmental provisions; 9. Conclusions and policy recommendations; Acronyms and abbreviations; Annex; References.

Product details

• Authors: Clara Brandi, Clara (German Institute of Development and Brandi, Jean-Frédéric Morin
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 21.12.2023
• EAN: 9781009461832
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0946183-2
• No. of pages: 104
• Series: Elements in Earth System Governance
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > General, dictionaries; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Environmental Policy, Environmental Economics, International Trade, Business and the environment; ‘green’ approaches to business, Business & the environment, 'Green' approaches to business, Investment Treaties & Disputes, International trade and commerce