“Green regulation”: a quantification of regulations related to renewable energy, sustainable transport, pollution and energy efficiency between 2000 and 2022

Abstract

The achievement of an environmentally sustainable growth model, the development of renewable energies or the adoption of energy efficiency measures are nowadays fundamental issues in economic analysis and are a substantial part of the public debate. However, while there may be an increased social awareness of these issues, a different question is at what pace these social concerns have been translated into regulation, fostering or hindering the development of new markets or “green” technologies. This paper proposes a rigorous empirical study identifying and quantifying, through text analysis, all regulations related to four different subject blocks associated with “green growth” (renewable energies, sustainable transportation, pollution and energy efficiency), issued by Spanish national or regional governments over the period 2000-2022. This research thus constructs a database in panel data format. Among other results, we identify 3,482 regulations related to renewable energies, 783 regulations dealing with sustainable transportation, 108 on pollution management and 5,116 related to the measurement (and management) of energy efficiency. The results show that regulation is diverse by subject matter, reflects significant regional diversity and has increased over time, especially in more recent years, after a certain standstill during the Great Recession. This database could help develop future research projects on the impacts of “green” regulation on certain economic or institutional variables (such as “green” innovation or environmental conflict). The paper concludes with a comparison of renewable energy regulation in France and Spain, also based on text analysis. Spain shows a higher and more disaggregated volume of regulation.