| Traditional energies like coal and petroleum as the engine of social development always occupy the significant position.However,with the unprecedented improvement of technology and enhancement of environmental awareness,people gradually recognize the deficiency of these traditional energies.Excessive use of fuel,which does great harm to environment,will not only result in the exhaustion of natural resources,but also increase emission of greenhouse gas.For pursuit of substantial development of economy and facing the challenge of climate change,countries start thinking about their own mode of energy.There renewable energy comes which is environmental friendly and unexhausted.It is helpful for human beings to alleviate deterioration of environment and acquire sufficient energies.Nowadays,development of renewable energy has already been a trend.Due to its valuable cost,governments make lots of measures to support it.Among them,the most common one is subsidy.Nevertheless,insofar,WTO neither has distinguished renewable energy from other energies nor established any rules to regulate it that cause these subsidies be questioned by other members and also contribute to the gap between commerce and environment.Meanwhile,with the expiration of non-actionable subsidies under Article 8 of SCM agreement in 2000,renewable energy subsidies have been swamped into dilemma.Large amount of Feed-in-tariff programs and local-content requirements are adopted by countries and become the main way to incent and support renewable energy.While,these approaches,on one hand,are more likely to be charged by prohibited and actionable subsidies,on the other hand,being used by trade protectionism that in turn obstructs the development of this new kind of energies.Besides,Article XX of GATT 1994 as the only one article which may provide defense for renewable subsidies,is harder to use due to the lack of explicit conclusion about its application on SCM agreement and the intricate requirements.Therefore,it is important to justify the renewable energy subsidies and improve the relevant rules under WTO.First of all,in terms of legislation,each member shall push the establishment of renewable energy legal system because of its complicacy and particularity.It seems impossible to solve this problem only relying on current rules.Moreover,on judicial aspect,the function of explanation should be fully played by panel and appellate body.Last but not least,as members in international community,all countries shall enhance communication and corporation with each other,creating various bilateral or multilateral agreements to dissolve this issue instead of resort to DSB which is time consuming and expensive.It is undisputable that renewable energy subsidies have become a blind spot under the legal system of WTO and also become an unavoidable task for pursuit of sustainable development.Consequently,it is of great value to further analysis on legality of renewable energy subsidies. |
