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A Game Changer in Greening Trade between the EU and China in a Polarized World: A Bilateral Soft-Law Paradigm

Project description

Greening EU-China trade

As climate change, pollution, and loss of biodiversity worsen, the previously stable free trade system faces challenges, especially in the EU-China relationship. The EU’s efforts towards climate neutrality, using tools such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, are testing global trade rules. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the EDUARDO project explores a two-sided ‘soft-law’ approach to make EU-China trade greener. By combining flexible legal instruments with the EU’s stringent environmental regulations (including deforestation and packaging laws), EDUARDO examines how cooperation rather than confrontation can lead to better sustainability. This is the first study to integrate soft and hard law in this field, aiming to provide policymakers with practical strategies to reshape global trade rules for a greener future.

Objective

This proposed research comes to light at such a time when both scholars and policymakers have to face an urgent challenge that the conventional free trade paradigm is being shaken in a polarized world and by the green transition towards climate neutrality, which has been vividly reflected in the EU-China dynamics. How to achieve a paradigm change of green trade is the defining topic of the EU-China relation at our time in a polarized world. The research sheds new light on the potential of a bilateral soft-law paradigm to address environmental and climate concerns within the context of EU-China trade – greening the trade. This project meticulously examines the feasibility, design, and applicability of such a paradigm change in enhancing environmental sustainability in greening trade between the EU and China, focusing particularly on its integration with three new EU flagship trade-related environmental instruments – the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Deforestation Regulation, and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations (PPWR). The study aims to offer a nuanced understanding of how this bilateral soft-law paradigm could serve as a strategic legal tool and potentially a “game changer” to balance the intricate trade-environment dynamics between the EU and China, while concurrently addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. It serves as the very first study that integrates hard law measures and soft law paradigm in EU-China bilateral narratives, connecting environmental and trade regimes. The expected impact of the project extends far beyond academia, offering actionable strategies that can be adopted by EU-China policymakers to balance trade and environmental imperatives between the two economic powerhouses. It will even further contribute to a global beacon in the ever-changing game of greening trade coopetition – a real paradigm change to address the triple planetary crisis.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 247 553,28
Address
NORREGADE 10
1165 KOBENHAVN
Denmark

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Region
Danmark Hovedstaden Byen København
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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