University of Lucerne, Faculty of Law and University of Notre Dame, 6th Law and Economics Conference

Description

Disconnected Paradigms in Decarbonizing the Grid: EU and WTO Law between Legitimizing Support Schemes and Entrenching the Status Quo

Although liberalization of the European Internal Energy Market (IEM) in se contributes to decarbonization of the electricity grid, it does not compensate sufficiently for market failures and has left clean energy at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis fossil fuels. Interventions in the market for the sake of public interest are necessary by means of introducing support schemes and binding targets for clean
energy on the EU level. However, while arguably consistent with EU disciplines pertaining to State Aid, EU support schemes may easily fall foul of WTO subsidies regulation. This article argues that EU and WTO law are disconnected paradigms in this respect: EU legislation by its design attempts to legitimize support schemes for renewable energy, not necessarily considering their consistency with the ASCM.
WTO law, on the other hand, makes such schemes sensitive to dispute settlement, thereby entrenching the status quo of leaving renewables trailing fossil fuels.

Period	7 Apr 2017 - 8 Apr 2017
Held at	University of Lucerne, Faculty of Law and University of Notre Dame, 6th Law and Economics Conference
Event type	Conference
Conference number	6
Location	Lucerne, Switzerland