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environmental commitments alone is not particularly appealing to nations.
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International environmental treaties can also play a significant role in achieving green

growth; however, a singular approach to environmental issues often only reveals long-
term future results alongside efforts (which require substantial resource expenditure) in
the present, leading to the conclusion that international environmental treaties are often
"less attractive" for participation and are very ineffective—because they are difficult to
implement in practice.
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Meanwhile, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are closely tied to the economic
development goals of nations, and because FTAs, with their extensive impacts, provide
numerous development opportunities for countries, nations are generally more willing

to negotiate and actively participate in FTAs than in international environmental
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treaties. Additionally, since FTAs relate to development, integrating and incorporating
sustainable development, green growth, and environmental issues into their content is a
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reasonable solution. This leads to the emergence of new-generation FTAs, where trade
and investment commitments are aligned with commitments to environmental
protection, sustainable development, and green growth.

Thus, it can be seen that international cooperation through the signing of
international treaties to realize green growth goals will not be limited to international
environmental treaties but will also encompass free trade agreements. In the current
context, the content related to green growth contained within FTAs plays a crucial role
in guiding and achieving green growth.
3. Research methodology
Through highlighting that the contents of green growth have been integrated and

transformed within FTAs, this study will provide an analysis and draw conclusions
about green growth in the narrow sense of international law (as opposed to the broad
sense of green growth in the general environmental approach discussed in Section 2,
Theoretical Framework). Subsequently, the study will analyze the mechanisms for
enforcing environmental provisions in FTAs to emphasize their superiority and
advantages, indirectly indicating why the trend of integrating environmental issues into

FTAs has become prevalent.
At the same time, through analyzing the mechanisms for realizing green growth
via international law by assessing the implementation of FTA provisions (where green
growth is considered a component of FTAs), the authors will ultimately highlight and
comment on the legal nature surrounding green development in international law, while
also making some forecasts.

68 Clémençon, Raymond (2016), The Two Sides of the Paris Climate Agreement: Dismal Failure or Historic
Breakthrough?, The Journal of Environment & Development 25, no. 1, p.3–24.
69 https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/paris-global-climate-change-agreements accessed 10 Aug 2024.
70 Adriana Melchor and Alisha Shaparia (2024), Trade-Climate Linkage in Free Trade Agreements: A Way
Forward for Green Growth Employing A Case Study of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, M-RCBG Associate
Working Paper Series, No. 237, April 2024
71 https://ieep.eu/publications/leveraging-free-trade-agreements-for-sustainability/ accessed 11 Aug 2024; See
also https://greenly.earth/en-us/blog/company-guide/how-can-free-trade-agreements-and-ecology-be-aligned accessed 11 Aug 2024.
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