IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v105y2017icp256-262.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The politics of renewable energy trade: The US-China solar dispute

Author

Listed:
  • Hughes, Llewelyn
  • Meckling, Jonas

Abstract

The Chinese and US governments played significant roles in the development of renewable energy industries, seeing them as key growth sectors and crucial to addressing climate change. While the US and China cooperated in renewable energy development, since 2011 the countries have engaged in a protracted and major trade dispute in the solar photovoltaics industry. We propose that the US government's decision to impose, and then expand, tariffs on a number of Chinese solar producers can be explained though a model of coalitional politics, drawing on Actor-Centered Institutionalism and the Advocacy Coalition Framework. We show that a coalition of domestic manufacturers and congressional interests formed a protectionist coalition that utilized US trade law to their advantage. In doing so they sidelined a free trade coalition representing the majority of US solar photovoltaic firms. The institutional design of US trade law also facilitated the successful application of trade remedies. Our analysis suggests that the domestic politics of renewable energy trade make trade conflicts a likely outcome, leaving limited scope for policy to carefully manage the trade-off between protecting parts of manufacturing through tariffs and lowering the cost of renewable energy technologies to mitigate climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Hughes, Llewelyn & Meckling, Jonas, 2017. "The politics of renewable energy trade: The US-China solar dispute," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 256-262.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:105:y:2017:i:c:p:256-262
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.02.044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517301283
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.02.044?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacobsson, Staffan & Lauber, Volkmar, 2006. "The politics and policy of energy system transformation--explaining the German diffusion of renewable energy technology," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 256-276, February.
    2. Nahm, Jonas & Steinfeld, Edward S., 2014. "Scale-up Nation: China’s Specialization in Innovative Manufacturing," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 288-300.
    3. Nelson, Douglas, 1989. "Domestic Political Preconditions of US Trade Policy: Liberal Structure and Protectionist Dynamics," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 83-108, January.
    4. Jegen, Maya & Audet, Gabriel, 2011. "Advocacy coalitions and wind power development: Insights from Quebec," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7439-7447.
    5. Schreurs, Miranda A., 2012. "Breaking the impasse in the international climate negotiations: The potential of green technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 5-12.
    6. 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.
    7. Wan, Zheng & Craig, Brian, 2013. "Reflections on China–US energy cooperation: Overcoming differences to advance collaboration," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 93-97.
    8. Wittman, Donald, 1983. "Candidate Motivation: A Synthesis of Alternative Theories," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 142-157, March.
    9. Nahm, Jonas, 2017. "Renewable futures and industrial legacies: Wind and solar sectors in China, Germany, and the United States†," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 68-106, March.
    10. Weber, Christopher L. & Peters, Glen P., 2009. "Climate change policy and international trade: Policy considerations in the US," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 432-440, February.
    11. Lewis, Joanna I., 2014. "Managing intellectual property rights in cross-border clean energy collaboration: The case of the U.S.–China Clean Energy Research Center," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 546-554.
    12. Zheng, Cheng & Kammen, Daniel M., 2014. "An innovation-focused roadmap for a sustainable global photovoltaic industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 159-169.
    13. Jonas Meckling, 2015. "Oppose, Support, or Hedge? Distributional Effects, Regulatory Pressure, and Business Strategy in Environmental Politics," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(2), pages 19-37, May.
    14. Boehmer-Christiansen, Sonja, 1997. "A winning coalition of advocacy: climate research, bureaucracy and `alternative' fuels : Who is driving climate change policy?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 439-444, March.
    15. Avinash Dixit, 2002. "# Incentives and Organizations in the Public Sector: An Interpretative Review," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(4), pages 696-727.
    16. Aalto, Pami, 2014. "Institutions in European and Asian energy markets: A methodological overview," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 4-15.
    17. Gerring, John, 2004. "What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(2), pages 341-354, May.
    18. Zhang, Fang & Gallagher, Kelly Sims, 2016. "Innovation and technology transfer through global value chains: Evidence from China's PV industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 191-203.
    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. Meckling, Jonas & Nahm, Jonas, 2019. "The politics of technology bans: Industrial policy competition and green goals for the auto industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 470-479.
    2. Jonas Meckling, 2019. "Governing renewables: Policy feedback in a global energy transition," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(2), pages 317-338, March.
    3. Weko, Silvia & Goldthau, Andreas, 2022. "Bridging the low-carbon technology gap? Assessing energy initiatives for the Global South," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    4. Matsuo, Tyeler & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2019. "Managing tradeoffs in green industrial policies: The role of renewable energy policy design," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 11-26.
    5. Behuria, Pritish, 2020. "The politics of late late development in renewable energy sectors: Dependency and contradictory tensions in India’s National Solar Mission," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Binz, Christian & Gosens, Jorrit & Hansen, Teis & Hansen, Ulrich Elmer, 2017. "Toward Technology-Sensitive Catching-Up Policies: Insights from Renewable Energy in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 418-437.
    7. Nuñez-Jimenez, Alejandro & Knoeri, Christof & Hoppmann, Joern & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2022. "Beyond innovation and deployment: Modeling the impact of technology-push and demand-pull policies in Germany's solar policy mix," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    8. Zhang, Wei & Yang, Jun & Sheng, Pengfei & Li, Xuesong & Wang, Xingwu, 2014. "Potential cooperation in renewable energy between China and the United States of America," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 403-409.
    9. Wang Lai Wang & Marek Kryszak, 2020. "Technological Progress and Supply Base under Uncertain Market Conditions: The Case Study of the Taiwanese c-Si Solar Industry 2016–2019," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-25, November.
    10. Curran, Louise & Lv, Ping & Spigarelli, Francesca, 2017. "Chinese investment in the EU renewable energy sector: Motives, synergies and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 670-682.
    11. Pahle, Michael & Pachauri, Shonali & Steinbacher, Karoline, 2016. "Can the Green Economy deliver it all? Experiences of renewable energy policies with socio-economic objectives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1331-1341.
    12. Ans Kolk & Louise Curran, 2017. "Contesting a Place in the Sun: On Ideologies in Foreign Markets and Liabilities of Origin," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(4), pages 697-717, June.
    13. Binz, Christian & Truffer, Bernhard, 2017. "Global Innovation Systems—A conceptual framework for innovation dynamics in transnational contexts," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1284-1298.
    14. Feurtey, Évariste & Ilinca, Adrian & Sakout, Anas & Saucier, Carol, 2016. "Institutional factors influencing strategic decision-making in energy policy; a case study of wind energy in France and Quebec (Canada)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1455-1470.
    15. Lam, Long T. & Branstetter, Lee & Azevedo, Inês M.L., 2017. "China's wind industry: Leading in deployment, lagging in innovation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 588-599.
    16. Garsous, Grégoire & Worack, Stephan, 2022. "Technological expertise as a driver of environmental technology diffusion through trade: Evidence from the wind turbine manufacturing industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    17. Apergi, Maria & Zimmermann, Eva & Weko, Silvia & Lilliestam, Johan, 2023. "Is renewable energy technology trade more or less conflictive than other trade?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    18. Summerfield-Ryan, Oliver & Park, Susan, 2023. "The power of wind: The global wind energy industry's successes and failures," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    19. Victoria Kihlström & Jörgen Elbe, 2021. "Constructing Markets for Solar Energy—A Review of Literature about Market Barriers and Government Responses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.
    20. Binz, Christian & Tang, Tian & Huenteler, Joern, 2017. "Spatial lifecycles of cleantech industries – The global development history of solar photovoltaics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 386-402.

    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:eee:enepol:v:105:y:2017:i:c:p:256-262. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    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.