Renewables, Preferential Trade Agreements andEU Energy Security

Laws

Rafael Leal-Arcas¹  Valentina Caruso¹ 

[1]The Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road,London E1 4NS, UK

关键词: renewable energy;    preferential trade agreements;    energy security;    EU;    Energy Community;    climate change;   

DOI  :  10.3390/laws4030472

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

A major aim of the international community is to decarbonize the economy. With renewables, international trade in energy is likely to increase. In turn, the international trading system can be a major vehicle towards moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. To this end, it can provide fair competition, economies of scale and knowledge transfer. This article analyzes the impact of European Union (EU) preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in addressing climate change mitigation and energy security by promoting renewables. Currently, there is a proliferation of PTAs; this trend seems irreversible and is likely to persist, given the current crisis in the multilateral trading system. We argue that the EU can, through its network of PTAs, move towards greater energy independence as renewable energy becomes increasingly economically viable. This article provides a thorough review of the renewable energy-related provisions in the EU’s current PTAs and recommends three tangible ways through which the EU could capitalize its vast network of PTAs to boost the renewable energy market.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.