The rise and fall of GO trading in European renewable energy policy: The role of advocacy and policy framing

This paper examines policy processes surrounding the rise and fall of the proposed EU-wide policy instrument designed to help achieve EU´s renewable energy targets – the trading of Guarantees of Origin (GO). It discusses its origins and examines factors in the policy processes over time leading first to its development and then to its rejection. A first analysis looks at the near-term policy-making process before and after the proposal on GO trading in January 2008, focusing on the European law-making institutions and influences of interest groups and member state governments. It then takes a step back and looks over a longer time period at how competing policy frames have shaped the trading debate. Results show how a strong internal market frame acted as a primary driving force in the Commission to promote the GO trading instrument. The rejection of the GO trading proposal in the Council and Parliament can be largely attributed to the lack of a strong lobby in favour of GO, the accumulated experience with and institutionalisation of national RES support policies such as feed-in tariffs, and growing general political concerns for supply security and competitiveness. The framing analysis show that the rise and fall of GO trading embodies a classic conflict between the internal market and the member states’ wish to protect national interests.