Globalization and new policy concerns: the WTO and the EU's sustainability criteria for biofuels

TY - JOUR

T1 - Globalization and new policy concerns

T2 - the WTO and the EU's sustainability criteria for biofuels

AU - Daugbjerg, Carsten

AU - Swinbank, Alan

PY - 2015/3/16

Y1 - 2015/3/16

N2 - The transfer of some decision-making authority from the domestic to the supranational arena as a result of the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 potentially changed domestic policy dynamics. The WTO agreements reflect the trade policy concerns addressed in the Uruguay Round in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This article applies and adapts historical institutionalism to explain how international organizations may constrain and facilitate certain domestic policy options. It demonstrates that, while the WTO legal framework has become more receptive of environmental sustainability concerns, the social sustainability concerns that were increasingly entering the debate over biofuel policies were not easily accommodated, and this was seen as a constraint on the content of the European Union's (EU) policy adopted in 2009. Only the environmental dimension of a broader concept of sustainability was included in the policy design.

AB - The transfer of some decision-making authority from the domestic to the supranational arena as a result of the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 potentially changed domestic policy dynamics. The WTO agreements reflect the trade policy concerns addressed in the Uruguay Round in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This article applies and adapts historical institutionalism to explain how international organizations may constrain and facilitate certain domestic policy options. It demonstrates that, while the WTO legal framework has become more receptive of environmental sustainability concerns, the social sustainability concerns that were increasingly entering the debate over biofuel policies were not easily accommodated, and this was seen as a constraint on the content of the European Union's (EU) policy adopted in 2009. Only the environmental dimension of a broader concept of sustainability was included in the policy design.

KW - globalization

KW - WTO

KW - European Parliament

KW - institutions

KW - Biofuel

KW - sustainability

U2 - 10.1080/13501763.2014.927520

DO - 10.1080/13501763.2014.927520

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1350-1763

VL - 22

SP - 429

EP - 446

JO - Journal of European Public Policy

JF - Journal of European Public Policy

IS - 3

ER -