WTO and Renewable Energy: Lessons from the Case Law

49 JOURNAL OF WORLD TRADE 6, Kluwer Law International, ISSN: 1011-6702, December 2015, pp. 1103 – 1116

18 Pages Posted: 16 Dec 2015 Last revised: 20 Dec 2015

See all articles by Paolo Davide Farah

Paolo Davide Farah

West Virginia University (WV, USA); gLAWcal - Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom); University of Pittsburgh - School of Law

Elena Cima

Graduate Institute of International Studies; Yale Law School

Date Written: December 15, 2015

Abstract

This contribution illustrates some unresolved issues and tensions that characterize the way the WTO deals with renewable energy subsidies. Indeed, the indisputable urgency to address the negative impacts of climate change on the one hand, and the use of subsidies to boost and support a country’s renewable energy sector on the other, provide momentum to better define the legal framework offered by the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is fundamental to ascertain whether the current framework represents an adequate model to address renewable energy subsidies, or whether a more flexible interpretation of WTO Agreements toward sustainable development and the protection of the environment should be adopted instead. In view of that, this paper carefully investigates the evolution of the WTO subsidies disciplines, focusing in particular on the approach of the WTO towards renewable energy subsidies. This article is divided in three sections. The first one offers an overview of WTO disputes involving subsidies in the renewable energy sector, the second one focuses on the recent decisions in the Canada – Renewable Energy and Canada – Feed-in Tariff Program disputes and on some important issues they raise, while in the last one we draw our conclusions.

Keywords: WTO, World Trade Organization, Renewable Energy, Feed-in Tariffs, Canada, Subsidies, Dispute Settlement System

JEL Classification: : K33, K32, F02, H23, L95, L50, L55, N70, N75, Q20, Q28, Q30, Q32, Q38, Q40, Q48

Suggested Citation

Farah, Paolo Davide and Cima, Elena, WTO and Renewable Energy: Lessons from the Case Law (December 15, 2015). 49 JOURNAL OF WORLD TRADE 6, Kluwer Law International, ISSN: 1011-6702, December 2015, pp. 1103 – 1116, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2704453

Paolo Davide Farah (Contact Author)

West Virginia University (WV, USA) ( email )

325 Willey Street
Morgantown, WV 26506
United States

HOME PAGE: http://paolofarah.wordpress.com

gLAWcal - Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom) ( email )

United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.glawcal.org.uk/

University of Pittsburgh - School of Law ( email )

3900 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
United States

Elena Cima

Graduate Institute of International Studies ( email )

Geneva
Switzerland

Yale Law School ( email )

127 Wall St
New Haven, CT 06511
United States

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