Previous research investigating the relationship between ISO 14001 and environmental performance has yielded mixed results, fueling the debate over the impact of ISO 14001. While those studies have primarily focused on firm- and industry-level data, our study uses country-level data to examine the relationship between countries’ stock of ISO 14001 certificates and their Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions, our proxy for environmental performance. Using a panel dataset of 104 countries covering the period 1999 -2022, our preliminary findings show that an increase in ISO 14001 is associated with a 1.96% reduction in GHG growth rate. Although modest, this decrease supports the body of research suggesting that ISO 14001 can contribute to environmental improvement.
