Government Support for Renewable Energy under the Law of the World Trade Organization: In Regional Trade Agreements We Trust?

Abstract

In recent years, a number of countries have released huge subsidies for renewable energy in order to respond to the unprecedented challenges created by an ever-accelerating global warming. However, many of these subsidies face incompatibilities under the law of the World Trade Organization (‘WTO’), of which a reform is highly unlikely at the present juncture. Against this background, this PhD thesis will suggest a bottom-up approach to advance renewable energy (‘RE’) subsidies through regional trade agreements (‘RTAs’). After arguing in Chapter 2 that the policy space for both RE subsidies with and without LCRs is very narrow and conducting a case study of the recently revised EU law on RE subsidies in Chapter 3, the author will present in Chapter 4 his analysis of 374 RTAs regarding their RE subsidy provisions. The author’s analysis shows that only 8 RTAs have provisions relevant to RE subsidies and advance these disciplines through RE exemptions. However, based on extensive analysis of the relevant provisions, it is argued that none of these provisions can be used as a model for the future in order to advance RE subsidies. To this end, Chapter 5 will show what the exemption for RE subsidies should look like.