Conflicts of the SCM Agreement with LDCs Interests over Renewable Energy Incentives

Abstract

This article argues that climate change effects have sharpened the least developed countries’ (LDCs) need to move towards a green economy. As respective markets tend to grow, the LDCs would benefit if the production of and research in renewable energy (RE) especially wind and solar energy equipments and technologies are subsidized globally. Despite the existence of the policy room in other related international regulatory framework, the Subsidies Agreement of the World Trade Organization makes incentivizing RE industries significantly difficult, if not impossible. It has been recommended that law reform, by way of incorporating special carve-outs in the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement, is the path that would assist LDCs in their smoother transition to a green economy.

Keywords

LDC green energy energy subsidies SCM WTO

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

APEC (2012). APEC List of Environmental Goods, Annex C, 20th APEC Economic Leaders’ Declaration, Vladivostok, Russia. Available at: http://www.apec.org/Meeting-Papers/Leaders-Declarations/2012/2012_aelm/2012_aelm_annexC.aspx.

Bigdeli

S. Z.

(2009). Incentive schemes to promote renewables and the WTO law of subsidies. In Cottier

Nartova

Bigdeli

S. Z.

(Eds.), International trade regulation and the mitigation of climate change: World trade forum (pp. 163–172). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bigdeli

S. Z.

(2011). Resurrecting the dead? The expired non-actionable subsidies and the lingering question of ‘green space’. Manchester Journal of International Economic Law, 8(2), 2–37.

DARA (2010). Climate Vulnerability Monitor. Available at http://daraint.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/CVM_Complete-1-August-2011.pdf. p. 16.

ESCAP. Energy Security and Sustainable Development in the Asia and the Pacific. Available at: http://www.unescap.org/esd/publications/energy/theme_study/energy-security-ap.pdf, pp. 185–6.

Howse

(2010). Climate Mitigation Subsidies and the WTO Legal Framework: A Policy Analysis, Manitoba: IISD. p. 6.

ICTSD (2014). Green Goods’ trade talks kicks off in Geneva. BRIDGES, 18(25). Available at: http://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/bridges/news/green-goods-trade-talks-kick-off-in-geneva.

IEA (2011). IEA analysis of fossil fuel subsidies, based on World Energy Outlook 2011. Available at: https://www.iea.org/media/weowebsite/energysubsidies/ff_subsidies_slides.pdf.

IEA (2013). World Energy Outlook Factsheet, 2013. Available at: http://www.iea.org/media/files/WEO2013_factsheets.pdf.

10.

Low

Marceau

Reinaud

(2011). The Interface between the Trade and Climate Change Regimes: Scoping the Issues, Staff Working Paper, Economic Research and Statistics Division, World Trade Organization, Available at: http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/reser_e/ersd201101_e.pdf pp. 27–30.

11.

Meyer

(2013). Energy subsidies and the World Trade Organization. ASIL Insights, 17(22). Available at: http://www.asil.org/sites/default/files/insight130910.pdf

12.

Rubini

(2012). Ain’t wastin’ time no more: Subsidies for renewable energy, the SCM agreement, policy space, and law reform. Journal of International Economic Law. 15(2), 525–579.

13.

UN . (2011). Program of action for the least developed countries for the decade 2011–2020, Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (UN Document No. A/CONF.219/3/Rev.1), Istanbul, Turkey, 9–13 May, Distributed 23 May 2011.

14.

UN (2012). The Future We Want, Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. UN Document No. A/CONF.216/L.1, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20–22 June, Distributed 19 June, 2012.

15.

UNCTAD (2010). The Least Developed Countries Report 2010: Towards a New International Development Architecture for LDCs. Available at: http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ldc2010_embargo_en.pdf. p. 31.

16.

UNFCCC (2011). Least Developed Countries: Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change, Climate Variability and Extremes, Land Degradation and Loss of Biodiversity, Available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/publications/ldc_reducingvulnerability.pdf. p. 16.

17.

UN-OHRLLS (2013). Background note for the high-level event on sustainable energy for LDCs, 23 September New York. Available at: http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G03671.pdf. p. 4.

18.

Van den Bossche

. (2012). The law and policy of the World Trade Organization (pp. 559–60). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition.

19.

WTO (2007). WTO Committee on Trade and Environment Special Session (CTESS), Continued Work Under Paragraph 31(III) of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, WTO Document No. JOB (07)/54, 27 April 2007. Manuscript submitted for publication.