Solutions for Sustainability: How the International Trade, Energy and Climate Change Regimes Can Help

474 Pages·8.33 MB·English

by  Rafael Leal-Arcas

European Yearbook
of International
Economic Law
Rafael Leal-Arcas
Special Issue:
Solutions for Sustainability
How the International Trade, Energy and
Climate Change Regimes Can Help
123
European Yearbook of International
Economic Law
SeriesEditors
MarcBungenberg,Saarbrücken,Germany
MarkusKrajewski,Erlangen,Germany
ChristianJ.Tams,Glasgow,UK
JörgPhilippTerhechte,Lüneburg,Germany
AndreasR.Ziegler,Lausanne,Switzerland
AssistantEditor
JudithCrämer,Lüneburg,Germany
AdvisoryEditors
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ThomasCottier,Bern,Switzerland
StefanGriller,Salzburg,Austria
ArminHatje,Hamburg,Germany
ChristophHerrmann,Passau,Germany
MeinhardHilf,Hamburg,Germany
JohnH.Jackson{
WilliamE.Kovacic,Washington,USA
GabrielleMarceau,Geneva,Switzerland
Ernst-UlrichPetersmann,Florence,Italy
HélèneRuizFabri,Luxembourg,Luxembourg
BrunoSimma,München,Germany
RudolfStreinz,München,Germany
Moreinformationaboutthissubseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/8848
Rafael Leal-Arcas
Solutions for Sustainability
How the International Trade, Energy and
Climate Change Regimes Can Help
RafaelLeal-Arcas
QueenMaryUniversityofLondon
London,UK
ISSN2364-8392 ISSN2364-8406 (electronic)
EuropeanYearbookofInternationalEconomicLaw
ISSN2510-6880 ISSN2510-6899 (electronic)
SpecialIssue
ISBN978-3-030-23932-9 ISBN978-3-030-23933-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23933-6
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To Alessandra, Eduardo, and Juan, for
teaching me so much about life.
Acknowledgments
This book hasbeen writtenwith thefinancial supportof theErasmus+ Program of
the European Union, which funded my Jean Monnet Chair in EU International
EconomicLaw(projectnumber575061-EPP-1-2016-1-UK-EPPJMO-CHAIR).
ThefinancialhelpfromtwoEuropeanUniongrantsisgratefullyacknowledged:
Jean Monnet Chair in EU International Economic Law (project number 575061-
EPP-1-2016-1-UK-EPPJMO-CHAIR)andtheWiseGRIDproject(number731205),
fundedbytheEuropeanUnion’sHorizon2020researchandinnovationprogram,for
whichIamaprincipalinvestigator.
The ideas in this book have developed over the years. I am very grateful to the
participants of the following events for very insightful discussions that have
improvedmanyoftheideasexpressedinthisbook:
– Yalesustainabilityleadershipforum,September2016and2017,YaleUniversity;
– Executive education program on climate change and energy, October 2018,
HarvardKennedySchoolofGovernment,HarvardUniversity;
– Oxford Summer School in Ecological Economics, August 2018, Oxford
University;
– 35th Round Table on Sustainable Development, OECD Headquarters, Paris,
France;
– TheFutureSustainabilitySummit2019,AbuDhabi,UnitedArabEmirates;
– YaleWorkshoponTradeandClimateChange,November2017,YaleUniversity.
vii
viii Acknowledgments
While writing this book, I had the fortune to serve as a Visiting Scholar in the
followinginstitutions:
– Trade and Environment Division of the World Trade Organization, Geneva,
Switzerland;
– MasdarInstituteofScienceandTechnology,AbuDhabi,UnitedArabEmirates;
– SustainableEnergyforAllSecretariat,Washington,D.C.,USA.
I am very grateful to my colleagues in those institutions for hosting me and for
helpingmeshapemanyoftheideasinthisbook.
Many concepts addressed in Chaps. 2, 4, and 9 are a further development of
R. Leal-Arcas, “Sustainability, Common Concern and Public Goods,” The George
Washington International Law Review, Vol. 49, Issue 4, pp. 801–877, 2017.
Several sections from Chap. 3 are a further development of R. Leal-Arcas and
A.Morelli,“TheResilienceoftheParisAgreement:NegotiatingandImplementing
theClimateRegime,”GeorgetownEnvironmentalLawReview,Vol.31.1,pp.1–63,
2018. Several ideas in Chap. 6 are a development from R. Leal-Arcas, “New
FrontiersofInternationalEconomicLaw:TheQuestforSustainableDevelopment,”
University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, Vol. 40, Issue 1, pp. 83–
132, 2018. Many ideas in Chaps. 7 and 8 were drawn from R. Leal-Arcas et al.,
“Smart Grids in the European Union: Assessing Energy Security, Regulation &
SocialandEthicalConsiderations,”ColumbiaJournalofEuropeanLaw,Vol.24.2,
pp. 311–410, 2018. Parts of Chap. 8 were drawn from the ideas developed in
R. Leal-Arcas et al., “Energy Decentralization in the European Union,” Queen
Mary University of London, School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No.
307/2019,pp.1–55.
Rockville,MD,USA RafaelLeal-Arcas
June2019
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
PartI FromtheTopDown
2 CooperationonIssuesofCommonConcernandPublicGoods. . . . . 19
3 LinkingInternationalTradetoClimateChangeandEnergy. . . . . . 47
4 UsingTradeAgreementstoAchieveSustainability:ACounter-
IntuitiveConundrum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5 TradingSustainableEnergy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
PartII FromtheBottomUp
6 DecentralizationandEmpoweringtheCitizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
7 SmartGridsandEmpoweringtheCitizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
8 PracticalApplicationsofDecentralizedEnergyintheEU. . . . . . . . 283
9 Innovation,Research,andTechnology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
ix
Chapter 1
Introduction
Sustainabilityisanecessityforthetwenty-firstcenturythathasaninter-generational
dimension.1Giventheurgency2oftheissue,scientistshaveproposedconceptssuch
as “planetary boundaries” to define a “safe operating space for humanity”3 to
continue to thrive for years to come.4 The concept of planetary boundaries is
based on scientific research that indicates that, since the Industrial Revolution at
the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century, human
activityhasgraduallybecomethemaindriverofglobalenvironmentaldegradation.5
A related concept—sustainable development—was coined by the Brundtland
Commission6 in a report titled Our Common Future.7 The concept has three main
pillars. First, sustainable development recognizes that part of the environmental
challenge is poverty.8 For example, certain communities need to cut down trees
1In the case of climate change and energy, the indicators of sustainability are greenhouse gas
emissions,primaryenergyconsumption,andtheshareofrenewableenergyingrossfinalenergy
consumption. For further details on sustainability in the context of economic performance and
social progress, see J. Stiglitz, A. Sen and J.-P. Fitoussi, “Report by the Commission on the
Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress,” (2008) available at https://ec.
europa.eu/eurostat/documents/118025/118123/Fitoussi+Commission+report.
2Jake Sullivan, US national security advisor to US Vice President Biden, once famously said:
“Between fatalism and complacency lies urgency.” See https://twitter.com/JesseJenkins/status/
1062448890543267841.
3Rockströmetal.(2009),p.33.
4Planetary BoundariesResearch,Stockholm Resilience Centre,http://www.stockholmresilience.
org/research/planetary-boundaries.html[https://perma.cc/HME9-TBNR].
5Rockströmetal.(2009),p.33.
6Formally known as the World Commission on Environment and Development, the Brundtland
Commissionwascreatedtopersuadecountriestoaimatsustainabledevelopment.WorldComm’n
onEnv’t&Dev.,OurCommonFuture,Annex2,U.N.Doc.A/42/427(1987),availableathttp://
www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf[https://perma.cc/KPK5-CH3Y].
7Id.at1.
8Id.atOverview,¶8.
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2019 1
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EconomicLaw,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23933-6_1