ECIPE Seminar: The Rise of Green Protectionism

Can commitment to Green policy and the rules of open trade sit nicely together? In a new paper, Fredrik Erixon argues they can, but not if industrial policy and promotion hide behind environmental policy. Green protectionism is not about environmental policy, but about using such policies for other purposes. Erixon surveys in the paper the EU’s policy for biofuels and renewable energy, and concludes that core elements of thatpolicy looks more like industrial promotion than a genuine desire to rapidly shift away energy from fossil fuels.