On September 21, I did an interview for Earthbeat Radio in the U.S. on Japan’s WTO challenge to Ontario’s Green Energy Act. You can listen to it here. It fades in and out a bit, so essentially I make the same case we made in our press release and Rabble op-ed, that the challenge is an important litmus test for post-crisis econo-enviro policies, such as local preferences on green government initiatives, that strive to create jobs and reduce emissions. Policies aimed at hording investment that negatively impact developing countries should be scrutinized but the Green Energy Act is doubtfully among them. Also on Earthbeat was Arne Jungjohann of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, who among other things explains the German feed-in tariff system that Ontario and other countries are adopting to grow their renewable energy sectors. He says though the German policy did not include local preferences, there wasn’t much global competition at the time. He adds that Chinese, American and Canadian efforts to grow regional green energy sectors through preferences are reasonable now given new demand and employment pressures.
