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Abstract

Today's development of renewable energy technologies is perceived as an essential ingredient of the world’s response to emerging challenges of energy security, global warming, and climate change. However, the global deployment of renewables needs huge financial and technological contributions that many States cannot afford. Therefore the promotion of foreign investments in this sector is at the stake. However, the global flow of investment and technology in this sector is not free from the regulations of international trade and investment law instruments. Among the prominent provisions common to these instruments are Market Access obligations. WTO agreements and IIAs provide for different levels of market access. Moreover, the possible contribution of these provisions in each case depends on the approach of the applicable agreements to the renewable energy sector in particular. Therefore it is also important to collaterally understand the overall approach of international trade and investment agreements to this sector since it appears to be a two-dimensional matrix. Therefore to clarify the possible contribution of market access provisions to the promotion of foreign investments in the renewable energy sector, this article, after providing an introduction, expounds on the status of the applicable market access obligations to this sector under trade law. Consequently, it deals with the approach of IIAs in this regard. Finally, it concludes that so far both the legal systems have to a great extent overlooked the importance of establishing robust pro-renewable energy market access obligations.

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