Most 'green' trade deals are being signed in places where trade in eco-friendly goods isn't even growing.
March 19, 2026
Original Paper
<p><span>Environmental Goods Trade Networks and the Reach of Environmental Provisions in Preferential Trade Agreements</span></p>
SSRN · 6308122
The Takeaway
While environmental trade clauses are effective at boosting the exchange of green tech when used, they are becoming globally irrelevant. This is because the world’s green trade is exploding in corridors between East Asia, Africa, and the Middle East—the very places where these environmental protections are almost never included in trade deals.
From the abstract
This paper maps the global trade network of environmental goods (EG) across 11 OECD environmental areas from 2000 to 2024, combining network analysis and an Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM) to test whether preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with environmental provisions are associated with bilateral trade link formation after controlling for endogenous network processes and gravity covariates. China, the United States, and Germany dominate export shares and brokerage positions, mediating