Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
permitted where protectionism can be shown to bene
t the environment may not
apply to such a measure that merely slows the uptake of biofuels in Europe. Bra-
zilian businesses complain that an EU tari
of 19 cents per litre of ethanol has
prevented Brazil making a contribution to 20/20/20 targets.
France has focused increasingly on the export of nuclear technology, which
other member states judge to be a security risk. 27 One of the most high-pro
le
debates was over President Sarkozy
.Afteradvocating
such a measure in France, the president took his suggestion to Brussels, recog-
nising that new protectionist measures were only feasible and only made sense at
the Union level. After several years of debating such measures, there is still no
clear, single EU line on carbon tari
'
sproposalfora
'
green tari
'
cials argue stridently
that such trade-controlling measures must be part of the EU
s. Some European o
'
spressureonthird
countries to meet emissions targets. Others express concern that they risk dis-
torting investments and will serve as disingenuous pretext for a general return to
protectionism. Rules on subsidies and discriminatory taxes have been pursued in
an ad hoc free-for-all. The EU has imposed tari
s on some low carbon fuels from
particular suppliers, like biofuels from the US, because they bene
tfromsubsidies
from their home governments, while member states make a more general case in
favour of green subsidies.
While the G20 agenda formally includes the issue of elaborating rules on state
subsidies for low carbon development, energy companies routinely berate the EU
for doing little to restrict the scope of domestic subsidies in renewables as well as
the oil and gas sector. The UK Foresight report points to some of the balances
required: if
are stringently outlawed, many states may argue they have
less scope for domestic mitigation e
'
green tari
s
'
nancial crisis has
demonstrated in general terms the reality of market failure, this has spilled over to
prompt urgency in climate security too. This points
orts. 28 The fact that the
ner balance
between state intervention (to correct market mis-signals and provide capital) with
market incentives (to get nations competing over renewables development).
The Commission has recently relaxed state aid rules to facilitate public invest-
ment in carbon capture and storage. Even the British government has moved
towards more state intervention; signi
towards a
cantly such a shift has been supported by all
three main UK political parties. Critics have argued that wind farms have been
massively over-subsidised, drawing resources arti
cially away from other areas of
potential competitiveness gains, distorting global market dynamics with little
apparent gain to emission reductions. 29 Access for renewables is now to be over-
seen by regulators, not the market. Germany and Spain in particular have favoured
the route of feed-in tari
s as a preferential subsidy to renewables. These states
also blocked the more market-based
'
green certi
cates trading
'
system originally
proposed by the Commission.
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