Abstract: This paper investigates the limitations and possibilities of various regulatory strategies with respect to meeting the joint challenge of ecological and commercial modernization, in a context of loosely integrated polities. The major focus is on the trade-off between (1) regulatory effectiveness, (2) competitiveness and distributive effects across and between national energy industries, and (3) the political legitimation challenges that this poses at the national and international policy level. The paper concludes that focusing on negotiability and choosing sequential ‘soft’ regulation does not necessarily imply weak environmental standards in the long run. Rather, the softly initiated evolutionary strategy represents a realistic…appreciation of the fragility of global and federal institutions in issues of major industrial concern, and develops a path towards sustainable governance that takes this into consideration.
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