IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jageco/v60y2009i3p485-503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

EU Policies on Bioenergy and their Potential Clash with the WTO

Author

Listed:
  • Alan Swinbank

Abstract

The paper outlines EU policy on bioenergy, including biofuels, in the context of its policy initiatives to promote renewable energy to combat greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The EU’s Member States are responsible for implementing EU policy: thus, the UK’s Renewables Obligation on electricity suppliers and its Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation and road‐fuel tax rebates are examined. It is unlikely that EU policy is in conflict with the WTO Agreement on Agriculture or that on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, but its provisions on environmental sustainability criteria could be problematic.

Suggested Citation

  • Alan Swinbank, 2009. "EU Policies on Bioenergy and their Potential Clash with the WTO," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 485-503, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jageco:v:60:y:2009:i:3:p:485-503
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-9552.2009.00212.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-9552.2009.00212.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1477-9552.2009.00212.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mitchell, Catherine & Connor, Peter, 2004. "Renewable energy policy in the UK 1990-2003," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(17), pages 1935-1947, November.
    2. Mitchell, C. & Bauknecht, D. & Connor, P.M., 2006. "Effectiveness through risk reduction: a comparison of the renewable obligation in England and Wales and the feed-in system in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 297-305, February.
    3. Josling, Tim & Swinbank, Alan, 2008. "European Union: Shadow WTO agricultural domestic support notifications," IFPRI discussion papers 809, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Nicholas Perdikis & Robert Read (ed.), 2005. "The WTO and the Regulation of International Trade," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2940.
    5. Daugbjerg, Carsten & Swinbank, Alan, 2009. "Ideas, Institutions, and Trade: The WTO and the Curious Role of EU Farm Policy in Trade Liberalization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199557752.
    6. Bomb, Christian & McCormick, Kes & Deurwaarder, Ewout & Kaberger, Tomas, 2007. "Biofuels for transport in Europe: Lessons from Germany and the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 2256-2267, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bartolini, Fabio & Viaggi, Davide, 2012. "An analysis of policy scenario effects on the adoption of energy production on the farm: A case study in Emilia–Romagna (Italy)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 454-464.
    2. Sivek, Martin & Kavina, Pavel & Jirásek, Jakub, 2011. "European Union and the formation of its initiative in energy minerals," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5535-5540, September.
    3. Swinbank, Alan & Tranter, Richard & Jones, Philip, 2011. "Mandates, buyouts and fuel-tax rebates: Some economic aspects of biofuel policies using the UK as an example," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1249-1253, March.
    4. Tranter, R.B. & Swinbank, A. & Jones, P.J. & Banks, C.J. & Salter, A.M., 2011. "Assessing the potential for the uptake of on-farm anaerobic digestion for energy production in England," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2424-2430, May.
    5. Bentsen, Niclas Scott & Jack, Michael W. & Felby, Claus & Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark, 2014. "Allocation of biomass resources for minimising energy system greenhouse gas emissions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 506-515.
    6. Gamborg, Christian & Anker, Helle Tegner & Sandøe, Peter, 2014. "Ethical and legal challenges in bioenergy governance: Coping with value disagreement and regulatory complexity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 326-333.
    7. Jones, Philip & Salter, Andrew, 2013. "Modelling the economics of farm-based anaerobic digestion in a UK whole-farm context," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 215-225.
    8. Arlo Poletti & Daniela Sicurelli, 2016. "The European Union, Preferential Trade Agreements, and the International Regulation of Sustainable Biofuels," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 249-266, March.
    9. Robert Ackrill & Adrian Kay, 2010. "WTO Regulations and Bioenergy Sustainability Certification – Synergies and Possible Conflicts," NBS Discussion Papers in Economics 2010/9, Economics, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University.

    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. Connor, Peter M. & Xie, Lei & Lowes, Richard & Britton, Jessica & Richardson, Thomas, 2015. "The development of renewable heating policy in the United Kingdom," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 733-744.
    2. Swinbank, Alan, 2009. "EU Support for Biofuels and Bioenergy, Environmental Sustainability Criteria, and Trade Policy," Price Volatility and Beyond 320208, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
    3. Butler, Lucy & Neuhoff, Karsten, 2008. "Comparison of feed-in tariff, quota and auction mechanisms to support wind power development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1854-1867.
    4. Toke, David, 2011. "The UK offshore wind power programme: A sea-change in UK energy policy?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 526-534, February.
    5. Lesser, Jonathan A. & Su, Xuejuan, 2008. "Design of an economically efficient feed-in tariff structure for renewable energy development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 981-990, March.
    6. Onifade, Temitope Tunbi, 2016. "Hybrid renewable energy support policy in the power sector: The contracts for difference and capacity market case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 390-401.
    7. del Río, Pablo & Bleda, Mercedes, 2012. "Comparing the innovation effects of support schemes for renewable electricity technologies: A function of innovation approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 272-282.
    8. Connor, Peter & Bürger, Veit & Beurskens, Luuk & Ericsson, Karin & Egger, Christiane, 2013. "Devising renewable heat policy: Overview of support options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 3-16.
    9. Kern, Florian & Smith, Adrian & Shaw, Chris & Raven, Rob & Verhees, Bram, 2014. "From laggard to leader: Explaining offshore wind developments in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 635-646.
    10. Charles, Michael B. & Ryan, Rachel & Ryan, Neal & Oloruntoba, Richard, 2007. "Public policy and biofuels: The way forward?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5737-5746, November.
    11. Polzin, Friedemann & Egli, Florian & Steffen, Bjarne & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2019. "How do policies mobilize private finance for renewable energy?—A systematic review with an investor perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1249-1268.
    12. Glithero, N.J. & Ramsden, S.J. & Wilson, P., 2013. "Barriers and incentives to the production of bioethanol from cereal straw: A farm business perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 161-171.
    13. Wang, Yunfei & Li, Jinke & O'Leary, Nigel & Shao, Jing, 2024. "Banding: A game changer in the Renewables Obligation scheme in the United Kingdom," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    14. Agnolucci, Paolo, 2007. "The effect of financial constraints, technological progress and long-term contracts on tradable green certificates," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3347-3359, June.
    15. Johnston, Angus & Kavali, Amalia & Neuhoff, Karsten, 2008. "Take-or-pay contracts for renewables deployment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 2481-2503, July.
    16. Egli, Florian, 2020. "Renewable energy investment risk: An investigation of changes over time and the underlying drivers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    17. Schallenberg-Rodriguez, Julieta, 2017. "Renewable electricity support systems: Are feed-in systems taking the lead?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1422-1439.
    18. Wang, Yunfei & Li, Jinke & O'Leary, Nigel & Shao, Jing, 2024. "Excess demand or excess supply? A comparison of renewable energy certificate markets in the United Kingdom and Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    19. Mario Ragwitz & Simone Steinhilber, 2014. "Effectiveness and efficiency of support schemes for electricity from renewable energy sources," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 213-229, March.
    20. Foxon, T.J. & Pearson, P.J.G., 2007. "Towards improved policy processes for promoting innovation in renewable electricity technologies in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1539-1550, March.

    More about this item

    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:bla:jageco:v:60:y:2009:i:3:p:485-503. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-857X .

    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.