Green Bills for Green Earth: How the International Trade and Climate Regimes Work Together to Save the Planet

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 macroeconomically, 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 Organization (WTO) globally and the European Union (EU) regionally might combat climate change in remarkable ways. The article also provides an analysis of European Green Deal and the US Green New Deal (GND), 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 (CBAM). European Green Deal, US Green New Deal, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, carbon pricing, GATT general exceptions, non-discrimination principle in GATT