IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/glenvp/v14y2014i4p10-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Rise of Renewable Energy Protectionism: Emerging Trade Conflicts and Implications for Low Carbon Development

Author

Listed:
  • Joanna I. Lewis

    (Georgetown University)

Abstract

The emergence of several rapidly industrializing economies within leading renewable energy technology industries has contributed to more globalized supply chains and an increase in the international trade of renewable energy technologies. In most markets, wind and solar power technologies still require some form of government support to be deployed, yet few countries are willing to subsidize an industry that relies primarily on imported technology. These trends have led to an emergence of trade-related disputes, both via the World Trade Organization and domestic trade remedy channels. Through an analysis of the emerging trade disputes and the prevalence of protectionist polices in the wind and solar industries, this article examines the conflict between the political economy of domestic renewable energy support and the basic principles of global trade regimes, as well as the implications for nations’ abilities to transition to low carbon economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Joanna I. Lewis, 2014. "The Rise of Renewable Energy Protectionism: Emerging Trade Conflicts and Implications for Low Carbon Development," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 14(4), pages 10-35, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:14:y:2014:i:4:p:10-35
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/GLEP_a_00255
    File Function: link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robyn Eckersley, 2004. "The Big Chill: The WTO and Multilateral Environmental Agreements," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 4(2), pages 24-50, May.
    2. Esty, Daniel C., 2002. "The World Trade Organization's legitimacy crisis," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 7-22, March.
    3. Daniel Esty, 1994. "Greening the GATT: Trade, Environment, and the Future," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 40, October.
    4. Thijs Van de Graaf, 2013. "Fragmentation in Global Energy Governance: Explaining the Creation of IRENA," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(3), pages 14-33, August.
    5. Johannes Urpelainen, 2013. "Promoting International Environmental Cooperation Through Unilateral Action: When Can Trade Sanctions Help?," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(2), pages 26-45, May.
    6. Chao, Hung-po & Peck, Stephen, 2000. "Greenhouse gas abatement: How much? and Who pays?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 1-20, January.
    7. Joseph E. Aldy, 2013. "Policy Monitor A Preliminary Assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's Clean Energy Package -super-1," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(1), pages 136-155, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Gehring & Benjamin Faude, 2014. "A theory of emerging order within institutional complexes: How competition among regulatory international institutions leads to institutional adaptation and division of labor," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 471-498, December.
    2. Benjamin Faude & Michal Parizek, 2021. "Contested multilateralism as credible signaling: how strategic inconsistency can induce cooperation among states," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 843-870, October.
    3. Jha, Raghbendra & Murthy, K. V. Bhanu, 2003. "An inverse global environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 352-368, June.
    4. Sturm, Daniel & Ulph, Alistair, 2002. "Environment, trade, political economy and imperfect information: a survey," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0204, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    5. Millimet, Daniel L. & Roy, Jayjit, 2015. "Multilateral environmental agreements and the WTO," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 20-23.
    6. Josh Ederington & Jenny Minier, 2003. "Is environmental policy a secondary trade barrier? An empirical analysis," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 36(1), pages 137-154, February.
    7. Colyer, Dale, 2004. "Environmental Regulations And Competitiveness," Working Papers 19100, West Virginia University, Department of Agricultural Resource Economics.
    8. David Popp & Francesco Vona & Giovanni Marin & Ziqiao Chen, 2020. "The Employment Impact of Green Fiscal Push: Evidence from the American Recovery Act," NBER Working Papers 27321, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Patrick Messerlin, 2010. "Climate change and trade policy: From mutual destruction to mutual support," Working Papers hal-00972994, HAL.
    10. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline & Mouez Fodha, 2011. "Environmental Tax and the Distribution of Income among Heterogeneous Workers," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 103-104, pages 71-92.
    11. Lim, Taekyoung & Guzman, Tatyana S. & Bowen, William M., 2020. "Rhetoric and Reality: Jobs and the Energy Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Udo E. Simonis, 2002. "Advancing the debate on a world environment organization," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 29-42, March.
    13. Burmeister, Larry L., 2000. "Dismantling Statist East Asian Agricultures? Global Pressures and National Responses," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 443-455, March.
    14. Unknown, 1998. "Economic Harmonization in the Canadian/ U.S./ Mexican Grain-Livestock Subsector," Proceedings of the 4th Agricultural and Food Policy Systems Information Workshop 1998: Economic Harmonization in the Canadian\U.S.\Mexican Grain-Livestock Subsector; 252441, Farm Foundation, Agricultural and Food Policy Systems Information Workshops.
    15. Patrick Messerlin, 2010. "Climate change and trade policy: From mutual destruction to mutual support," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqi, Sciences Po.
    16. Jeffrey J. Schott, 2011. "The Future of the Multilateral Trading System in a Multi-polar World," Chapters, in: Ulrich Volz (ed.), Regional Integration, Economic Development and Global Governance, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Theodore Panayotou, 2000. "Globalization and Environment," CID Working Papers 53A, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    18. Conconi, Paola & Perroni, Carlo, 2002. "Issue linkage and issue tie-in in multilateral negotiations," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 423-447, August.
    19. Johannes Urpelainen, 2012. "How Does Democratic Accountability Shape International Cooperation?," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 29(1), pages 28-55, February.
    20. Aurélie Méjean & Franck Lecocq & Yacob Mulugetta, 2015. "Equity, burden sharing and development pathways: reframing international climate negotiations," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 387-402, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    renewable energy; environmental technology; global trade;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:14:y:2014:i:4:p:10-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kelly McDougall (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.