Green Protectionism: The New Way to Protect the Environment?

Green protectionism involves a set of policy measures to restrict trade for environmental reasons. These measures include a variety of methods, such as setting environmental standards, imposing environmental taxes or incentives, and banning or limiting environmentally unsustainable products or services. The primary objective is safeguarding the environment. Nevertheless, it's crucial to acknowledge that these policies may impede trade and result in economic expenses. Hence, implementing green protectionism should be approached with careful consideration for balance.

The main reasons for green protectionism include increased environmentally conscious consumers and companies, concerns about climate change and other environmental problems, and efforts to increase governments' ecological protection responsibilities. While this policy contributes to protecting the environment and supports the fight against climate change, it risks hindering trade, causing economic costs, and affecting competition.

Examples of green protectionism include setting environmental standards, imposing environmental taxes, providing environmental incentives, and banning certain products. The European Union adopted the path of protecting environmental standards by banning chemicals that are harmful to the environment. While China continues reducing ecological impacts by imposing high taxes on fossil fuels, Turkey supports environmentally friendly products with incentives such as tax deductions for electric vehicles. Finally, by banning products that can seriously harm the environment, some countries are making an impact on environmental protection efforts by ultimately preventing the use of plastic bags.

The future of green protectionism is poised to play an active role in global trade, as this policy becomes more critical as the number of environmentally conscious consumers and companies increases and governments strengthen environmental measures. This issue, which has been on the agenda in Türkiye in recent years, attracts attention with Türkiye's efforts to become a party to the Paris Climate Agreement and to fulfill its commitments to combat climate change. However, implementing green protectionism in Turkey may affect sectoral competition and cause economic costs. It is essential to balance these costs with the benefits of environmental protection and combating climate change.

Author:

Mina Üstün