Subsidy Regulation in WTO Law: Some Implications for Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy

This contribution discusses WTO subsidies disciplines in the context of the energy sector. After laying out the relevant disciplines, it will discuss the paradox of WTO law with respect to subsidies towards fossil fuels vis-à-vis those towards renewable energy. It is clear that subsidies on clean energy production and consumption are needed to correct market failures and to promote legitimate policy goals such as contributing to sustainable development through the scale up of clean energy, including expanding its trade.2 However, experience has shown that support schemes for clean energy by their nature and design make them sensitive to WTO dispute settlement. Much more harmful subsidies on fossil fuels, on the other hand, are omnipresent yet often escape being addressed in the multilateral trading system. The contribution will draw upon the examples of ‘energy dual pricing’ and Feed-In Tariffs (FITs). It will argue that while it may be difficult to tackle fossil fuels subsidies in the WTO forum, more efforts are needed to (re)legalise environmental subsidies

Indoor Environmental Quality: Lighting and Acoustics

Buildings are characterized by a mixture of environmental factors—(hygro)thermal, olfactory, luminous, and acoustic—that are commonly encapsulated under the banner of indoor environmental qualities (IEQ). Although a substantial amount of research has been done on the effects of IEQ on comfort and satisfaction of building users, the complex physical, physiological, and psychological processes underlying human responses to environmental stimuli are yet to be fully characterized. Among environmental forces, light and sound contribute significantly, individually and combined, towards the regulation of physio-psychological well-being, being most influential to perception and behavior. This article presents the current state-of-the-art of knowledge in lighting and acoustics, describing the challenges that need to be tackled for a more comprehensive understanding of the influence of the luminous and aural environments on the comfort, performance, and health of building users