The Development Of EU Renewable Energy Legislation And Its Enlightenment To China

The threats of climate change towards human beings keep escalating. People take varieties of measures in response to climate change and develop a growing awareness of the importance of renewable energy. Scientific researches and large scale commercial development of renewable energy, an emerging source of energy, come into existence only in recent decades. With the rapid development of the renewable energy industry, it is crucial to integrate it into the legislation system to better plan and regulate its development.The European Union ("EU") enjoys a reputation for its high standards in protecting environment and it is one of the pioneers and leading players in developing renewable energy and renewable energy legislations. Nevertheless, as a union of sovereign countries, EU encountered challenges and difficulties in advocating EU-level legislations, which is enlightening worldwide. This article analyses the effort EU took in promoting the development and utilization of renewable energy from a legislation perspective. The article first examines the competence of EU in the legislation practice in renewable energy area at EU level based on EU's constitutional documents. The article then looks back into the history of the evolution of the EU's renewable energy legislation step by step and shows milestones of the EU legislation. Subsequently the current Directive on the promotion of renewable energy will be carefully analyzed and its main features are discussed. The allocation of national targets, designs of cooperative measures between Member States and the implementation measures are all covered. Afterwards, this article will discuss in depth whether harmonisation of a renewables trade market at EU level is a good approach to achieve EU's target and analyze the reasons behind by focusing on the fate of the trade of Guarantees of Origin (GOs).China has been gradually aware of the value of expediting the utilization and development of renewable energy and as such has begun to develop renewable energy on a large scale. This article reviews the development of China's renewable energy and its legislation progress. Following the introduction is the in-depth analysis on the current renewable energy legislation. Finally, the article points out the aspects that need to be improved and further proposes suggestions for the future development of China's renewable energy legislation in light of the experience of EU counterpart.