On the Effectiveness of Germany's Renewable Energy Sources Act

摘要

To what extent does environmental legislation achieve the objectives it pursues? The paper contributes to this discussion on effectiveness in two ways. First, it provides a conceptual framework from an economic and legal perspective. In particular, it clarifies that effectiveness in the narrow sense relates to achieving legally set goals - which, in turn, depends on suitability and enforcement of rules. However, a comprehensive framework needs to go beyond effectiveness in the narrow sense: that is, the more demanding concept of cost-effectiveness, which requires goal achievement at a minimum of societal costs, as well as un-anticipated secondary impacts, may impact the overall assessment. Second, the paper evaluates the effectiveness of the main policy instrument to support renewable energy sources (RES) in the German electricity sector, i.e., the German RES Act (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz). To this end, the paper investigates in what respect the RES Act effectively contributes to achieving the objectives of the RES Act; subsequently, the analysis is extended to a more comprehensive approach, assessing both cost-effectiveness and secondary effects of RES support in Germany.