The Innovative Trade and Climate Action-Linkage in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement: A Template for the EU’s New Approach to Green Trade Agreements

Abstract

AbstractContinental Europe and the UK have always had a special relationship—within and outside of the European Union (EU). British concerns over national sovereignty have led the UK to withdraw from the EU. Despite many disputes and alienation, it should not be forgotten that the EU and UK continue to share many interests and policy preferences. This includes climate action. The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)—the international agreement which governs the new bilateral relationship post Brexit—reflects this: The parties were able to agree on innovative provisions on climate action. These are unprecedented in the EU’s practice of free trade agreements (FTAs). This article explores how the TCA intertwines trade and investment commitments with climate action. It claims that the TCA may serve as a template for the EU’s (and even third states’) external trade and climate policy in the future—and has foreshadowed the Commission’s new approach to green FTAs communicated on 22 June 2022 (see European Commission, The Power of Trade Partnerships: Together for Green and Just Economic Growth, 22.6.2022, COM(2022) 409 final).As an analytical basis, the article will, firstly, outline why climate action constituted a relevant issue in negotiating the new relations between the UK and the EU (Sect. 1). It will then map and systematise the innovative provisions of the TCA on trade and climate change, distinguishing substantive law (Sect. 2) and dispute settlement (Sect. 3). In doing so, the article compares the TCA to the designs of earlier EU FTAs and situates the TCA within the parties’ obligations in international climate change law. Lastly, taking a birds-eye perspective, the article contends that the TCA may serve as a template for trade and climate action-linkages in future FTAs (Sect. 4).