The global community increasingly recognises the role of trade in supporting environmental sustainability. Over the past two decades, multiple international initiatives have aimed to promote the liberalisation, classification, and use of environmental goods and services (EGS). While progress has been uneven, these initiatives reflect growing momentum to align trade with climate and environmental goals.
This section highlights key efforts at the multilateral, plurilateral, and regional levels.
The WTO’s Long Road: Environmental Goods and Services in Trade Negotiations
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has long included EGS in its trade and environment agenda, particularly under the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) launched in 2001. One of its mandates called for negotiations on the “reduction or, as appropriate, elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services.”
Progress has been slow due to several challenges:
- Lack of agreement on product and service definitions
- Diverging interests between developed and developing countries
- Concerns about dual-use products and how to define what counts as 'green'
In the absence of consensus, no WTO-wide deal has been reached — but several member-led efforts have continued the conversation.
The Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) — A Plurilateral Effort
Launched in 2014, the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) was a plurilateral initiative led by a group of WTO members (including the EU, US, China, and others) aiming to eliminate tariffs on a set of environmental goods.
Key features:
- Based on the APEC list of 54 environmental goods
- Sought to expand this list and promote broader participation
- Negotiations broke down in 2016 due to disagreements over product scope and geopolitical tensions
While currently stalled, the EGA remains a reference point for what could be possible if consensus on EGS products were reached.
TESSD: Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions
In recent years, the WTO has launched non-negotiating platforms to explore how trade can support environmental goals. The most notable of these is the Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD), launched in 2020 and co-led by Costa Rica and Canada.
TESSD brings together over 70 WTO members to:
- Share experiences and best practices
- Discuss trade-related climate and environmental measures
- Promote coordination on environmental goods and services, including regulatory cooperation, technical assistance, and data transparency
Though not a formal negotiation track, TESSD has become a valuable space for soft cooperation on EGS issues.
The Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS)
The ACCTS, led by a small group of countries (initially New Zealand, Costa Rica, Fiji, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland), is an innovative attempt to create a green trade agreement that includes:
- Elimination of tariffs on environmental goods
- Liberalisation of environmental services
- Guidelines to discourage fossil fuel subsidies
- Provisions for eco-labelling and standards
While still under negotiation, ACCTS is a promising example of how a coalition of the willing can advance green trade goals beyond the gridlock of larger multilateral platforms.
APEC and Other Regional Initiatives
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has been instrumental in shaping the global conversation on EGS, especially through its 2012 APEC List of Environmental Goods, where members agreed to reduce tariffs to 5% or less on 54 products.
Other regional trade agreements — such as the EU’s Green Deal trade policy, or provisions in newer agreements like the CPTPP or RCEP — are beginning to include language on environmental services, green procurement, and sustainable development chapters.
These regional efforts are helping to mainstream EGS in trade policy, even as global consensus remains elusive.
What These Initiatives Show
Across all these initiatives, several themes stand out:
- EGS are now seen as critical to sustainable development and climate action.
- Definitions and classifications remain contested, but experimentation is ongoing.
- Coalitions of like-minded countries are increasingly important as laboratories for green trade governance.
EGSTradeHub.org tracks these developments — offering researchers and policymakers updates on key EGS initiatives, agreements, and emerging trends.