WTO Law on Environmental Sustainability and Green Trade Barriers

The World Trade Organization (WTO), which Denmark and the EU are members of, administers international trade agreements that balance trade and sustainability. The binding effect of WTO law on Denmark and the EU grants the WTO special significance in Danish and EU international trade relations. Sustainable development, which includes environmental sustainability, is one aim of WTO law.
At the same time, WTO trade treaties only address environmental sustainability to a limited extent and its sustainability provisions are vague. States use this lack of clarity to advance different interpretations of sustainability.
This project seeks to clairify and assess the legal status of green trade barriers within the realm of WTO law, theorise the legal concept of environmental sustainability, and understand how and why States seek to shape this emerging regime.