European Union and New Zealand Free Trade Agreement: promoting a global climate agenda/El Acuerdo de Libre Comercio entre la Unión Europea y Nueva Zelanda: promoviendo una agenda climática global

Abstract

All recent Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) concluded by the European Union (EU) include chapters on Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) containing mutual commitments on labour and environmental issues. The environmental provisions refer explicitly to the multilateral agreements that each Party commits to implementing, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change. However, the lack of an effective enforcement mechanism in the event of non-compliance with the TSD provisions has undermined the credibility of sustainability commitments. The EU FTA with New Zealand marks a turning point in this trend, introducing a new model of enforcement system. In regard to climate commitments, in particular, the agreement includes ambitious goals which, along with the new enforcement approach, could be extended to future EU FTAs, making a significant contribution to combating global climate change.