Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
One leading team of experts detects signs of a more protectionist stance towards
green trade.
25
In general there is little evidence that climate change is in fact driv-
ing EU external economic relations in a pro-liberal direction. It does not appear to
have had any impact on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform
-
the
latter clearly worsens scarcity in developing state and so feeds instability and con
ict
as climate impacts begin to hit. While the EU has not been the guiltiest party in
Doha
ers or sought to
get the issue of renewable trade onto the agenda in a balanced and positive fashion.
The EU has done little to ensure WTO coverage of renewables investment pro-
tection provisions. Crucially, member states reject any kind of commitment at the
EU level that would oblige them to modify such economic policies in accordance
with climate security indicators. DG Climate o
'
s failure, it has not shown
exibility in attempting new o
cials certainly admit that there has
been no coordination between di
erent parts of the EU decision-making
machinery on the relationship between trade and climate security. Indeed, a gen-
eral questioning of free market approaches has been increasingly evident.
Some parts of the EU policy-making machinery, and in particular those engaged
in development work, question the value of open markets and view private
investment in some cases as stirring up climate-related instability. They see inter-
national capital as supporting renewables initiatives that threaten to aggravate local
social tensions. From a development point of view, o
cials insist that the impera-
tive is to restrict big companies from buying up large tracts of land in poor coun-
tries to grow their own food in an e
ort to hoard resources as a preventative
measure against climate change. These policy actors have increasingly sought to
pull EU policies away from a free-market approach due to a generic concern over
climate-related instability.
One highly respected expert closely monitoring trade issues concurs that by
2012 the trend was even more strongly towards green protectionism.
26
The EU
has toughened up its Eco-Design Directive, with more stringent requirements on
standards: some see this as laudable, others as discrimination against non-EU pro-
ducers. A
erce debate persists between di
erent actors within the Union over
biofuels, with sharply di
ering views on the question of whether widening access
for biofuels is environmentally ethical or strategically self-interested. The EU has
increasingly used the
process to impede ethanol imports from Brazil.
The Renewable Energy Directive contains provisions on biofuels that some
member states berate as acting in a protectionist fashion. The Commission has
pushed to keep non-EU biofuels out of Europe through regulations to do with the
biodiversity of where they are grown and the need for them to demonstrate at least
a 35 per cent reduction in emissions
'
indirect costs
'
-
that is, justifying restrictions on environ-
mental grounds as concerns over the
impact of biofuels increase. How-
ever, observers expect these rules to be challenged in the WTO; the exemptions
'
indirect
'
