The ENTWINED programme is funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, Mistra which invests in research for sustainable development.
ENTWINED examines the role of private and governmental environmental policies under the trade regime from not only the perspective of where we are now but where we should be going. They investigate how sustainable development might be made operational within the WTO regime.
The focus is on two central issues, issues that are common to any environmental policy, however designed.
The first issue is: How much should a WTO Member be allowed to regulate regarding the environment? In particular, to what extent should a country be permitted to pursue environmental policies outside their borders? The second issue to be addressed is: In a world where there are incentives to misrepresent the motives of regulation.
The research looks at whether and how sustainable development can be promoted through mechanisms beyond those traditionally considered in the WTO. An inability by governments, under WTO rules, to regulate process-related attributes of foreign products has generated greater interest in voluntary standards. “Ecolabelling" is a voluntary method of environmental performance certification, harnessing consumer preferences for environmentally preferable behaviour by signalling that a particular company´s product or service has met certain predefined standards.
The focus is on the economic and environmental impacts of ecolabels. Some of the key questions examined are:
- who benefits from ecolabels and influences their design?
- how do ecolabels affect the environment?
- why are consumers willing to pay more for ecolabelled products?
- how does the design of ecolabel standards affect producer participation and behaviour?