EU Policies on Bioenergy and their Potential Clash with the WTO |
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| Authors: | Alan Swinbank |
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| Institution: | 1. Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Policy & Development, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Road, Reading RG6 6AR, UK. E‐mail: for correspondence. This paper draws on material prepared for a research project funded by the UK Research Councils under the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (Relu), involving colleagues in the Centre for Agricultural Strategy at the University of Reading, and at the University of Southampton (http://www.ad4rd.soton.ac.uk/);2. and it has been written in parallel with a report commissioned by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), with which it shares much material ( Swinbank, 2009). I am grateful to the ESRC and the ICTSD for financial support, to the ICTSD and my colleagues for allowing me to recycle material, and to two reviewers of the ICTSD report. Charles Banks, Carsten Daugbjerg, David Harvey and Richard Tranter kindly read, and provided valuable comments on, an earlier draft of this paper. None of these individuals or organisations, of course, is responsible for my errors, omissions or misrepresentations. |
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| 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. |
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| Keywords: | Agriculture biodiesel bioenergy bioethanol CAP environmental sustainability EU greenhouse gas like products renewables subsidies WTO F13 F18 F53 N74 O13 Q19 Q27 Q28 Q58 |
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