The goal of this chapter is to shed light on energy trade regulation beyond the WTO, in the Energy Charter Treaty and in preferential trade agreements. The chapter also probes the complex legal relationship between the WTO and the ECT, including overlap and conflict with respect to subject matter, procedure and membership. The last part of the chapter examines recent trends and developments in preferential trade agreements, looking in particular at the energy chapters of the EU-Ukraine, EU-Singapore and EU-Mexico free trade agreements.

This chapter repositions the debate on dual pricing as part of the bigger challenge of combating climate change. It addresses dual pricing from the perspective of the broader task of reforming environmentally harmful fossil fuel subsidies. The chapter moves beyond the potentially discriminatory nature of dual pricing to lay out options for disciplining dual-pricing practices in the WTO system in the grounds of their negative environmental impact. After providing some background, the chapter explores two main avenues for dealing with dual pricing: it first discusses what possibilities exist under current WTO rules, and then it explores what action the WTO can take beyond its current legal toolkit in the wider context of fossil fuel subsidy reform. The key argument is that the WTO can be a crucial actor in eliminating dual-pricing policies and can facilitate and significantly contribute to fossil fuel subsidy reform.